BJP says cobra chosen for historical reasons

By Chamodi Gunawardana

The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) revealed yesterday that the reason it had chosen a cobra as its symbol for its new political party, the Bodu Jana Peramuna (BJP), was due to historical reasons. 

Addressing a media briefing yesterday, BBS General Secretary Galagod aththe Gnanasara Thero said that the Cobra symbol was a highly valued and respectable historical symbol. 

“The Cobra symbol has been used as a mark to display power and greatness. It would never display violence or aggression. The BJP used it because we would like to show our power to others. However, we have requested that the Election Commissioner reserve that symbol for us. We are waiting for his approval,” Gnanasara Thero explained.

Commenting on the BJP’s election plans, the Thero said that BJP would contest at least 15 districts during the election to strength its roots all over the country.

“The BJP is open to intelligent people and we do not care about the religion or race of our supporters. Therefore we will conduct our election campaigns all over the country and will gather educated people around us. However, the BBS will remain the BBS. It will never change,” Gnanasara Thero said.

Gnanasara Thero added that the BJP’s main perspective was to create good people who loved and respected their religion, race and country more than anything. 

“Previous and current Governments only considered infrastructure development and did not pay any attention to creating good people. We seek to name the next 10 years the ‘National Empowerment Decade’ and hope to generate people who love Sri Lanka more. However, we will announce our manifesto and leader within one week,” Gnanasara Thero emphasised.

Talking about the creation of this new political party, the Thero said that the BJP originated from the Eksath Lanka Maha Sabha (ELMS) organisation.

“The BJP was co-created with ELMS, and it is a registered, old political party. We identified that the ELMS and BJP had similar opinions about politics so we decided to change its name and contest as one political party at the upcoming election,” Gnanasara Thero said.