Ajith Perera

Ajith P. Perera is a Sri Lankan politician and member of Parliament. He began his political career in 2009 as a member of the Provincial Council of the Western Provincial Council. A lawyer by profession, he was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in 2010 as a member of the United National Party (UNP) representing the Kalutara District. He was re-elected to Parliament in 2015.

In 2020, Perera was one of the founding members of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), currently the main opposition party in Sri Lanka, under the leadership of Sajith Premadasa. Within the SJB, he holds several key positions, including chief executive, leader of the Kalutara District, chief organiser for the Kalutara Electorate, and a member of the working committee.

Perera re-entered Parliament in 2024, securing the highest number of preferential votes from the Kalutara Electoral District for the SJB. He now serves as the Deputy Whip of the Opposition and is a member of the Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka.

Perera has been active in the legal profession for over three decades, having entered Sri Lanka Law College in 1988. He has been a member of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka for 30 years. In 2022, he was elected as the President of the Panadura Bar Association, and in 2023, he was re-elected for a second consecutive term.

As the State Minister of Power and Renewable Energy, Perera led the Soorya Bala Sangramaya (Battle for Solar Energy) initiative, which was launched in 2016. This community-based solar power generation project, undertaken in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA), originally aimed to add 1,000 MW of solar power to the national grid by 2025 and 1,500 MW by 2030. The initiative exceeded expectations, with more than 1,300 MW of Solar energy already connected to Sri Lanka’s national electricity grid by January 2025. The project provided households, religious places, hotels, and industries with options such as Net metering, Net Accounting, and Net Plus schemes, enabling consumers to generate and utilise solar electricity while selling excess power back to the national grid.

Perera was also a pioneer in introducing competitive bidding to Sri Lanka’s power sector in 2016 for both solar and wind energy sectors. This policy reform set a benchmark in the power sector and has contributed significantly to reducing costs and fostering trust in renewable energy projects.

In addition, Perera provided political leadership to several other landmark renewable energy projects:

   •    Thambapavani Wind Farm in Mannar, a 104 MW wind power plant.

   •    10 MW Kerawalapitiya waste-to-energy power plant, which addressed the nation’s waste disposal challenges by converting waste into energy.

He also serves as the Chairman of the Smart Energy Council of Sri Lanka, one of the country’s leading think tanks.

Born on 2 December 1967 in Bandaragama, a suburban town in the Kalutara District, Perera is an alumnus of the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka Law College, and Ananda College, Colombo.

In addition to his professional and political accomplishments, Ajith P. Perera is supported by his wife, Nadeeka Perera, a government school teacher. They have three children.