[3] At the 1st parliamentary election, held between 23 August 1947 and 20 September 1947, Kuruppu contested the Nivitigala electorate, as the United National Party (UNP) candidate, where he was narrowly defeated by 24 votes, by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party candidate, Don Frank Hettiarachchi.

[7] Two months later in July in support of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike he and four other members of the Sinhala Maha Sabha faction resigned from the UNP and crossed the floor.

[8][9] On 2 September Bandaranaike held the inaugural meeting of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), of which Kuruppu was a founding member.

[11] He was subsequently appointed as the Minister of Local Government and Cultural Affairs in the S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike cabinet.

[12][13][14] In 1959 he was elected the president of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, a position he served in for a year.