At the final UPFA mass rally held in Galle on Monday, Nisthantha Mutuhettigama had refused to come forward when his preferential number was announced. While the other candidates walked up to the special stage erected for the candidates, his seat remained vacant.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa flanked by his ministers had been on another podium. Wimal Weerawansa too had taken his place among the ministers a few seats away from the President. After some time Weerawansa had left the stage. At this point Mutuhettigama had emerged from no where and had dashed into the VIP stage and occupied the vacant seat amidst thunderous applause from his supporters in the audience. No effort however was taken by anybody to remove the controversial candidate from the place while the rest of the candidates were left wondering what had happened.

It was also likely that Mutuhettigama had a hand in the jeering and hooting received by an equally controversial female candidate when she greeted the audience once her preferential number was called.

The audience would have enjoyed the drama, but at what cost?

Now that Mutuhettigama had defied the party whip in the presence of its leader the President, with impunity, one may well ask who would stop others from following suit at future elections.

This is just one chapter in the Mutuhettigama story.

There`s another.

Last Thursday Daily Mirror was to do a video interview with Mutuhettigama with a view to corner him on the issue of discipline. The candidate fixed an appointment for 6:30 a.m. at a five-star hotel in Colombo. He had told the journalist that he would be working out at the hotel gym around that time and asked the reporter to send a message to the gym when she reached the hotel with two videographers. From 6:30 a.m. onwards the Mirror team had been sending messages to the gym through the hotel staff only to find that he had not come to the gym at all.

After sometime an employee of the hotel had said it was likely that the candidate was dead drunk and fast asleep somewhere since he had a `gala` time the previous night. The Mirror team had been given the numbers of four rooms thereafter saying that the candidate had booked those for himself and his `golayas`. Though all the given numbers were dialed no one had answered the phone.

One of the videographers had then gone to the floor and found that the door of one the rooms were slightly ajar. When he had knocked on that door a man who was dead drunk had opened the door fully. A few bare bodied men and two women had been inside the room which was strewn with empty bottles and half eaten snacks. When the Daily Mirror team had told them they had been looking for Mutuhettigama, the golaya had walked upto another room and started banging on the door. Since no one had responded the golaya had asked the videographer to go down stairs and wait in the lobby. When the videographer rejoined his two colleagues at the lobby the hotel security had told them that it was unlikely the candidate would come since he was drunk the previous night following an ugly brawl. The security had said the candidate and his team had become a major nuisance to the hotel staff. The Daily Mirror team had then decided to return to office without waiting there anymore.

So much for the provincial politics in Sri Lanka.