A two-thirds majority for Rajapaksa brothers’ party could allow them to amend the Constitution and restore presidential powers that were diluted in 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was received by his Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the Easter terror attacks on three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels, that claimed 253 lives, but the government has blamed a local Islamist extremist group, National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ) for the bombings.
Addressing Parliament, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said investigators have made good progress identifying the suspects and that some of the bombers travelled abroad and then returned home.
Services across the country came to a halt, as all citizens observed the silence from 8.30 a.m. to 8.33 a.m on Tuesday morning.
President Maithripala Sirisena had sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe on October 26, in a controversial move which plunged the island nation into an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
Maithripala Sirisena's decision on October 26 to sack Ranil Wickremesinghe and install former Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place sparked a constitutional crisis in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a political crisis since October 26 when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Rajapaksa.
Wickremesinghe's party has a majority in parliament and Sirisena's bid to bring back the country's former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse has already failed.
The parliament has approved a no-trust vote against Prime Minister Rajapaksa, speaker of parliament Karu Jayasuriya announced in the House.
All petitions filed against Sirisena's decision will be heard on December 4, 5 and 6, the apex court ruled.
Sirisena dissolved Parliament on October 9 and announced snap polls on January 5 next year after it became evident that he did not have enough support in the House to prove the premiership.
Sri Lanka PM Rajapaksa ended his five-decade-long association with the SLFP and joined the newly-formed Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP).
The nominations will be filed from November 19, 2018 to November 26, 2018. The new Parliament will hold the first meeting on January 17, 2019.
Lanka PM's son Namal indicated that Tamil prisoners may be released soon to persuade legislators to support Rajapaksa.
The TNA also condemned Sirisena's move to suspend the Sri Lankan Parliament, amid the political turmoil in the island nation, terming it as "undemocratic" and violation of parliamentary supremacy.
Mahinda Rajapaksa claims he has enough numbers to prove his majority and at least six of ousted premier Ranil Wickremasinghe's men have defected to his side.
Sirisena also suspended Parliament until November 16, which experts said was meant to buy time to engineer crossovers from Wickremesinghe's side to Rajapaksa in the 225 member parliament to reach the 113 majority mark.
He would take his colour, brushes and canvas outside to paint and talk with his love. He would stand close to the window and paint, keeping an eye on his muse.
They say the violin mimics the human sound. In his case, it was that of love, of longing. He didn’t know any other way of loving.
Younger people do not have much progressive beliefs; a 2017 survey found that one-third of young people opposed inter-caste marriage.
The pandemic has made it clear that virtual learning is here to stay. In the West, the big question is whether it will dilute the quality of the college experience and education. In India, which grapples with digital divide, the question remains whether this will reach most people at all.
Even after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, many 'informed' individuals in India continue to deny the virus with unscientific claims and unfounded data. The latest? Omicron will end the pandemic.
Across Asia there are deeply entrenched obstacles to a mode of higher education that is liberal in multiple senses – disciplinary and epistemological but also social and political.
The two incidents in the recent past, one in Mon district of Nagaland and the other at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, undermined the core principles democracy and federalism.