All is not well in the Lalith Front with a group once closely identified with the party leader, Mrs. Srimani Athulathmudali, now attempting to paddle their canoe in a direction not favoured by the leadership.

This had a repercussion in a working committee meeting of the party last week which was expected to deal with the participation of some members in the recent UNP convened Citizen's Consultation for free and fair elections and the de-politicization of key institutions.

But the subject did not come up with discussions centered on the party constitution and the constitution of the working committee. During this sometimes heated discussion, one former member of the working committee who was not admitted into the meeting had managed to sneak in.

He had created a rumpus and had gone up to Mrs. Athulathmudali's table and had been thumping it provocatively. Visibly angered, they allege that she had punched him. But she denied that this had happened. "I did not punch him,'' she said, "I ordered him out of the room.'' She said that her security people had "guided him out of the room'' and she had bruised herself in the scuffle.

Political circles say that there is a group within the front intent on taking the party to the UNP and most of the trouble the leadership has to deal with relates to this. Last week's rumpus was all connected to this, they said.