After 7 years, UNP defeated the PA at the 2001 general election and Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed as the PM of Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

According to prominent Sri Lankan academic and political analyst Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Suranimala Rajapaksa, as Project Ministers of Education was exercising equal powers with Karunasena Kodituwakku who was in theory his superior leading to the party facing an internal conflict.

[5][6] In March 2003, a domestic airline was delayed by two hours in Jaffna because non-cabinet minister for educational services, Suranimala Rajapakse, was lunching with a local MP.

[7] The British Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Frances Harrison reported that Elderly and sick passengers were loaded on to the aircraft with no air conditioning or refreshments and kept waiting while the minister then drank tea with the Jaffna security force commander at the airport.

Due to the controversy related to allegations of corruption surrounding Suranimala Rajapaksha, the UNP leadership did not nominate him to contest the 2010 general elections.

[8] Matara Chief Magistrate and Additional District Judge Sarath Sisira Kumara later released Rajapaksha and his associates on a Rs.

The common candidate of the joint opposition, Maithreepala Sirisena who secured a comprehensive victory on 8 January 2015 presidential election was sworn in as the 7th executive president of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.