Soon after getting to know about it, general secretary Duminda Dissanayake has altered it to ‘party on the right track’.

The leftist party had used the theme after the defection of Wimal Weerawansa and several others in order to strengthen its membership.

That same theme had been given to SLFP chair and president Maithripala Sirisena by ITN working director Dhanushka Ramanayake, say sources at the president’s house.

Both themes had been written by leading advertising figure Saman R. Silva, who also created the catchphrase ‘Mahinda Chintana.’

When contacted, he told Sri Lanka Mirror that he had wanted to have a theme that indicated the SLFP was back with the Bandaranaike policies.

During the previous regime, those policies had been completely neglected, he said.

Therefore, ‘party on the right track’ was used together with the Bandaranaike policies and the ‘hand’ symbol which had been ignored more more than 20 years, said de Silva.