Dayasiri Jayasekara

Dayasiri Jayasekara was born on 12 June 1969, as the youngest of seven children born to J.P. Vinsant Jayasekara, who was a businessman and W.D.Siriyawathie, who was a teacher.

His five elder brothers are:

• J.P.N. Pushpakumara Jayasekara - a businessman
• J.P.D. Rupakumara Jayasekara - Deputy Commissioner General- Inland Revenue Department
• J.P. Chandrasiri Keerthi Kumara Jayasekara - an engineer
• J.P. Dhanasiri Sisira Kumara Jayasekara - Working in the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka
• J.P. Kithsiri Chandrakumara Jayasekara - Popular singer & Music Director

His only elder sister J.P.Sriyani Champika Jayasekara is a teacher. Dayasiri is married to his longtime partner Jayawanthi Jayasekara and the couple has two children, Kaveen Jayasekara and Gihansi Jayasekara.

He received his primary education at Hettipola Junior School, Harischandra College and Mayurapada Central College, Narammala.

After obtaining a degree in law he joined the Justice Ministry as a coordinator. In 1997, he received a majority of the preferences votes in the Paduvasnuwara electorate. In 1999 he was appointed as the secretary of the Youth Association of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and was instrumental in organising the 54th party conference.

Thereafter, he was appointed as Secretary to Prof. G. L. Peiris who was then the Minister of Investment Promotion. During this time Dayasiri displayed immense skills of leadership and demonstrated his ability at organising and leading the masses. He also served as the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Mineral Sands Corporation.

Dayasiri commenced his political journey as a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. In 2001 he joined the United National Party (UNP) and was a candidate at the General Election held the same year. In 2004, he was appointed the organiser for the Katugampola electorate and received 52,457 preference votes at the General Election. In 2005, he was appointed as the organiser for Paduvasnuwara and continued to work with the residents of his electorate to uplift their living standards. In the 2010 General Election, he received 132,600 preference votes which was the highest votes received by any candidate in the Kurunegala District.

On 24 July 2013, he resigned from the UNP and joined the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to contest the Provincial Council Elections. He broke the record of former president Chandrika Kumaratunge of most votes in provincial council election in Sri Lanka and elected as the chief Minister of the province on 21 September 2013. He is the 6th chief minister of North Western Province.

Rift with the UNP leadership

Dayasiri was a very vocal member of the UNP that was critical of the way the party was run by its leader Ranil Wickremasinghe, who he branded as a "dictator" in 2010. Along with fellow party reformist Sajith Premadasa, Dayasiri was one of the key party members of the United National Party who fought for a change in the party leadership.

In 2012, it was widely speculated in the media that Dayasiri was about to join the government. He was quick to reject these allegation as baseless and accused Ranil Wickramasinghe of pressurising him to leave the party. As a result of his continuous criticism of the party leadership, Dayasiri was informed to be present before the party disciplinary committee.

In a hard-hitting speech made in parliament on 24 July 2013, Dayasiri was critical of the UNP and its leadership and conveyed his willingness to join the government to contest the Provincial Council elections.

His elder brother Kithsiri Jayasekara is a well known senior artist in Sri Lankan music industry. But, Dayasiri was too much concerned towards politics than singing career. He rose to prominence with reality show Mega Star telecasted on Swarnavahini in 2010. He won runner up award, but highly praised by the judges and fans. His first solo song Sansare was released on 2012.

Single song tracks released