Dinesh Gunawardena sworn in as 15th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

Dinesh Gunawardena, a veteran politician and a close ally of the Rajapaksa family, was appointed today as Sri Lanka's 15th prime minister.

Apart from Prime Minister Gunawardena, there are 17 other ministers in the Cabinet. Prime minister Gunawardena has been given an additional portfolio of Public Administration Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government.

A stalwart of Sri Lankan politics, Gunawardena, 73, earlier served as the foreign minister and education minister. He was appointed as Home Minister in April by then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. A schoolmate of President Wickremesinghe, Gunawardena, has held various Cabinet posts in the past.

Born in 1949, Gunawardena is the leader of the Trotskyist majority nationalist Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP), a constituent party of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party. He succeeded his father Philip Gunawardena in 1979 to lead the party after returning from the Netherlands where he completed his higher studies. His father was a prominent figure in the leftist socialist movement in the British era prior to the country's independence in 1948. The MEP became the ruling alliance in 1956.

Gunawardena entered parliament for the first time in 1983 from the populous Colombo suburb of Maharagama and became a leading opposition figure until 1994. He became a Cabinet minister for the first time in 2000. He continued in senior cabinet positions until 2015. He is a widower and has one son, who is also a Member of Parliament.