Feb 27, Colombo: Sri Lanka Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena says that he sacrificed the post of Prime Minister to the present President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2004.

He said after winning the general election in 2004, the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga sent a helicopter to Polonnaruwa to bring him to Colombo and asked him if he would assume the post of Premier.

Minister Sirisena said he refused the post and asked to make MP Mahinda Rajapaksa the Prime Minister.

An angry Minister said that the prospect of Prime Minister post has now been mingled with a recent clash his son Daham Sirisena was involved.

Media reports said that Daham Sirisena and a group of his friends had assaulted Asela Vaidyalankara, the son of DIG Ravi Vaidyalankara on the 24th at a beach resort in Pasikuda. Minister Sirisena further said that he did not interfere in the police investigations regarding the incident in which the son of a Deputy Inspector General was injured and hospitalized.

Minister's son had assaulted the son of the senior police officer telling the victim that he was the son of future Prime Minister.