Kumaratunga, Chandrika Bandaranaike definition of Kumaratunga, Chandrika Bandaranaike in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Kumaratunga, Chandrika Bandaranaike (chŭn`drēkə bändränī`kē k

mär'ət

ng`gə), 1945–, Sri Lankan politician. The daughter of two former prime ministers, the assassinated (1959) Solomon Bandaranaike Bandaranaike, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias, 1899–1959, prime minister (1956–59) of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka); husband of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. A lawyer educated in England, he entered politics and rose to hold a cabinet position.
..... Click the link for more information. and his wife, Sirimavo Bandaranaike Bandaranaike, Sirimavo (sērēmä`vō bändränī`kē), 1916–2000, Sri Lankan political leader, b.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the widow of Vijaya Kumartunga, another slain (1988) political leader, she is an economist and a member of the People's Alliance (PA) party. In 1994 she became chief minister of Sri Lanka's Western Province and, after the PA's election victory ended 17 years of rule by the United National party, became prime minister of Sri Lanka. Later in 1994 she was elected president, and her mother succeeded her as prime minister. In 1999 she was injured in a suicide bombing during a campaign rally; she won a second term by a narrow margin. Kumaratunga worked unsuccessfully to find a solution to the long and bloody war with the Tamils, but after the United National party won control of parliament in late 2001 she opposed its attempts to resolve the war.