evidence: Pressurize Sajith to endorse Ranil as presidential candidate and accept PM-ship. [...] Ranil’s course will trigger a Sinhala voter backlash with the only question being whether Anura or Sajith will be the beneficiary. So far, Sajith has avoided Ranasinghe Premadasa’s election-winning patriotic pledge of 1988 (de-induction of Indian forces) and observed a scrupulous silence on Ranil’s supine Indophilia while Anura has been incrementally foregrounding the issue. It is likely therefore, that on present form, AKD will be the primary beneficiary of a nationalist/patriotic backlash. [...] It should be easy for Sajith to defeat Ranil while outmanoeuvring Anura with a patriotic, pro-people, pro-poor, Premadasa discourse and Social Democratic brand.