Nihal Farook from the Kegalle district, contesting under the elephant symbol is one of the most formidable candidates in the fray at the upcoming polls. He has an unblemished political track record as a young provincial councillor in the Kegalle district.
Nihal is the son of former State Minister of Transport U.L.M. Farook who retired from active politics in 2000. He entered the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council in 2001 and represented the Kegalle district continuously for 17 years having won in all successive elections, increasing his vote base considerably.
He is an old boy of Zahira College, Colombo. Young Nihal was elected Chairman, National Youth Wing of the United National Party (UNP) for the Ruwanwella electorate in 1995 and Secretary, All Island Youth Council of the UNP.
When the UNP was embroiled in a chaotic situation before nominations were called for the upcoming polls, Nihal with his father, former State Minister U.L.M. Farook tried his utmost to settle the dispute amicably among the stalwarts in the Kegalle district. However, when senior UNPers aligned with the Sajith faction and formed the Samagi Jana Balawegaya Nihal Farook remained with the UNP displaying his integrity and loyalty to its leadership and his commitment to the party supporters who helped him to climb the political ladder during the past 17 years.
In this backdrop, all UNP activists in the Ruwanwella electorate including the Central Committee members (Balamandala Samajikayan) functioning under the then parliamentarian Dr. Thusitha Wijemanna unanimously requested Nihal Farook to accept the challenge of saving the UNP in this critical hour. Nihal readily agreed, with the fervent hope of addressing the pressing issues of the down-trodden in the Kegalle district.
The Ruwanwella electorate is a predominantly Sinhala Buddhist area and the Muslim and Tamil communities consist barely 12% of the total population. When Nihal’s candidacy was officially announced a large number of Bhikkhus and Tamil community leaders openly ratified his candidature in addition to his own community. As a Provincial Councillor during the past 17 years he has used his allocations very fairly and squarely and provided facilities to all needy people without any discrimination. Nihal is very popular among young sportsmen and women in the district as he has made a tremendous effort to promote sports, providing them with sports equipment and other infrastructure facilities through his personal contacts, in addition to the Council allocations.
He said sports mould the character of youth and good sportsmen would never indulge in any kind of nefarious activity.
Nihal Farook is a firm believer of inter communal harmony and peace among all people. During the past 17 years while in active politics he has never had any conflict or scuffle with any of his political opponents in the Kegalle district. As election fever gradually gathers momentum in the electorate, Nihal Farook conducts himself as a true gentleman and a matured senior politician who has won the admiration of even the contestants in the opposition camps. His political campaign is currently in full swing. Every morning he instructs his group to conduct themselves properly and not make even a simple remark that may hurt the feelings of another.
Nihal has taken this stance to avoid unpleasant incidents in the area which may tarnish the image of his political campaign and of the party at large.
It is very encouraging to see that quite a number of youth organisations in the district have come forward to support Nihal Farook leaving aside their political affiliations.