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Sri Lanka's front runner Mahinda Rajapaksa thanks PM Modi for congratulatory call

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Aug 06, 2020, 09:16 PM IST
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa (left) in New Delhi. Photograph:(Twitter)

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Mahinda Rajapaksa took to Twitter and thanked Narendra Modi for his wishes.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called and congratulated Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa for leading his party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) to victory in parliamentary polls in the country. 

Mahinda Rajapaksa took to Twitter and thanked Narendra Modi for his wishes. He said: "Thank you PM @narendramodi for your congratulatory phone call. With the strong support of the people of #SriLanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries. Sri Lanka & India are friends & relations."

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Rajapaksa's party is set to achieve a landslide victory as the results are being declared in Sri Lanka. 

Rajapaksa hopes to install his older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa - also a former President - as the next Prime Minister. The brothers are best known for crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils during the elder Rajapaksa's presidency in 2009.

Early counting showed that the Rajapaksas, who have long championed the cause of the island's Sinhalese Buddhist majority, are on track to win 70 per cent of the vote in the Sinhalese-dominated south.