Sri Lanka's common presidential candidate Mithripala Sirisena looks on during a meeting with the Diplomatic Community in Colombo January 1, 2015. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Over a dinner of rice-flour pancakes with his trusted health minister one evening in November, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa observed with a grin that there would be no serious candidate to challenge him in the coming presidential election.
Little did Rajapaksa know then that the man who would stand in his way of winning an unprecedented third term as president of this Indian Ocean island nation was right beside him.
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