On January 1, 1989, the then President and leader of the United National Party, Ranasinghe Premadasa, appointed me as the Chief Organizer of the Ududumbara , and in the general election held on February 15 of the same year, I stood as a candidate from the Kandy district. That election was also the first proportional election in Sri Lanka.
The late Deshmanya EL Senanayake led the Kandy district team in this election. Also late President DB Wijetunga, Chandra Karunaratne, WMTB Banda, ACS Hameed, Chandra Manda Silva, Gamini Rajapaksa, Abdul Kader, Harindranath Dunuwila, gamunu Abeysundara, Anura Daniel, S. Rajaratnam, RP Wijesiri, S. A Rajaratnam and S.B Karaliyadda contested. I was 27 years old when I entered the parliament after obtaining 27,885 preferential votes from that group.
Numerous political Leaders, including DB Wijetunga, Lalith Athulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayake, and the then-President Ranasinghe Premadasa, took part in my election campaign. The late President Ranasinghe Premadasa, DB Wijetunga, Gamini Dissanayake, and Lalith Athulathmudali provided me with the best public service experience.