in the election, Bandaranaike was elected to parliament. He would remain a member of parliament till his death. Following the defeat of Sri Lanka Freedom Party government in July 1977, Bandaranaike sat in the opposition in parliament with his mother. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party became a minority in the opposition and A. Amirthalingam of the Tamil United Liberation Front became the leader of the opposition. In October 1980, following an investigation by a Special Presidential Commission appointed by President J. R. Jayawardene found corruption and abuses of power, Sirima Bandaranaike and her nephew, Felix Dias Bandaranaike had their civil liberties stripped for a period of seven years by a motion in parliament. Sirima Bandaranaike remained the party leader, but Anura Bandaranaike became the de facto leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party parliamentarian group. Opposition leader With this backdrop, Anura Bandaranaike became the leader of the opposition in November 1983, when the incumbent Amirthalingam boycotted parliament and lost his seat in October 1983 while refusing swear an oath unconditionally renouncing support for a separate state. Bandaranaike served as leader of the opposition till 1988, holding a position once held by his father and mother before him. Rift within the party He contested the 1989 general election from the Gampaha Electoral District, which was the traditional base of the Bandaranaike family. Elected to parliament with preferential votes over one hundred thousand, he once again sat in the opposition with his mother who had regained her civic rights and became the leader of the opposition having been elected to parliament. He soon fell out with his mother and was suspended from the family party by Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The rift was aggravated by the return to the party of his sister Chandrika Kumaratunga who had left the family party in 1984 to join the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya formed by her husband Vijaya Kumaratunga. She then went into exile in London following Kumaratunga's assassination. United National Party He crossed over to ruling United National Party in 1993 which appointed him Minister of Higher Education and National Reconciliation under President Dingiri Banda Wijetunge. Chandrika Kumaratunga won the 1994 general election becoming Prime Minister and thereafter won the presidential election to become President. Anura Bandaranaike, returned to the opposition from 1994 to 2000 as a National List member of parliament, he contested under the UNP ticket to Gampaha District at the 2000 General Elections