The brother of Sri Lanka’s president and the country’s former finance minister, Basil Rajapaksa, said on Thursday he had resigned from parliament, the second from the influential family to step away from government amid a severe economic crisis.
“From today I will not be involved in any government activities but I cannot and will not step away from politics,” Rajapaksa said.
“The aim is to allow someone else to be appointed to parliament in my place from the party,” he told reporters in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned as prime minister last month after prolonged protests against the economic crisis turned deadly. Mahinda remains a member of parliament.
The three Rajapaksa siblings have been key players in Sri Lankan
