Rajiv Gandhi’s would-be assassin becomes legislator-hopeful

Party officials said de Silva would be a candidate for the party in the October 10 parliamentary elections. The sailor was sentenced to six years in jail for attacking Rajiv Gandhi with the butt of a rifle while he inspected an honour guard at the end of a 24-hour visit to Colombo on July 30, 1987.

He was paroled when President Ranasinghe Premadasa came to power in 1989. De Silva took up a musical career and used the photograph of himself attacking Gandhi on the cover of his cassette to sell his music.

However, his music failed to sell and he started a political career with the same success. His Bhumiputra party received only 35,854 votes at the 1999 Presidential elections won by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who garnered 4.3 million votes.