Who is going shopping for whom?

There is a famous JVP phrase “going shopping for somebody” which means doing work for somebody else and not getting anything in return or “washing somebody else's dirty cloths”. Some people say that SLFP is going for shopping for JVP and some others say vise versa. So who is going shopping for whom? Well if you look at the statistics and note down the minimum number of preferential votes a candidate from PA (whose major party was SLFP) in the last election needed to get to get selected to parliament in each district and compare it with the number of votes JVP got in that district you might notice that in most districts, the number of JVP votes exceed the minimum number of preferential votes to get selected. eg. If you select Kaluthara district, a candidate from PA needed to get at least 30,000 preferential votes. The JVP got 60,000 votes in the same district. So this time since SLFP and JVP are running from the same list and if all the people who voted for JVP gave their 3 preferential votes for 3 selected JVP candidates within the so called alliance (SLFP/JVP alliance) all three would get selected. If the JVP is organized enough to split their voters and mark the preferential votes correctly, they could even send more of their candidates. You can clearly see this strategy in Colombo district where the JVP is asking the people to mark their preferential votes to three selected JVP members. So when the election is over SLFP would find that more JVPers have gone to parliament than last time and their own number has reduced. As the Jathika Hela Urumaya ask people to “chandhaya puujaa karanna” (give the vote as a religious offering), the SLFP "thamangee parlieenthu aasana JVP ekata puujaa karanava." (SLFP is offering their seats in parliament to JVP.) So who is going shopping for whom?

Happy surfing Anura.