Exclusive | "My First Step If I Become President...": Lanka Opposition Leader To NDTV

The leader of Sri Lanka's main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party, Sajith Premadasa, who lost the 2019 presidential election to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is a strong contender for the President's post. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Mr Premadasa said there is a big power vacuum in the crisis-hit island nation. "6.9 million people and 6.8 million gave a mandate in the presidential and parliamentary elections. Those who received the mandate have either fled the country or their government has messed up," Mr Premadasa, the son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated in a rebel suicide bombing in May 1993, told NDTV. If he becomes President, Mr Premadasa said his first step would be to "bring back prosperity and livability to the people of my motherland". "That is my major concern," he added.