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COLOMBO, Oct. 27-- Sri Lanka was plunged into a political crisis late on Friday as President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed former President Mahinda Rajapakse as his "new Prime Minister". In a shocking move that stunned the nation, Rajapakse took oaths before the president at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, with Rajapakse vowing to form a new caretaker government together with Sirisena's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and his own "Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna"(SLPP). Moments after Rajapakse was sworn in, Sirisena in a letter urged Wickremesinghe to vacate his post as Prime Minister, citing Article 42 (4) of the Sri Lankan constitution. According to the President, Wickremesinghe lost majority in the 225 member Parliament when his own UPFA party which was part of the national government together with Wickremesinghe's United National Party, quitted the coalition government earlier Friday. The sudden move has been termed as unconstitutional by Wickremesinghe, who in a televised speech to the nation on Friday night said he could only be ousted through a no-confidence motion bought against him in Parliament. Wickremesinghe said he still enjoyed a majority in Parliament and the move by the President was illegal and urged Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to convene an urgent parliamentary session on Sunday. "I am addressing you as the Prime Minister of this nation. I am still the Prime Minister. The President cannot sack a Prime Minister who enjoys majority support in parliament," Wickremesinghe said from his official residence. | 
