Could Marxist Anura Dissanayake become Sri Lanka’s next president?

A frontrunner in the September 21 presidential vote, Dissanayake’s party, the JVP, twice fought violent battles to overthrow the very Sri Lankan state that he now wants to run.

Colombo, Sri Lanka – It was an unlikely invitation from the Indian government.

In early February, Anura Kumara Dissanayake visited New Delhi to meet the South Asian giant’s foreign minister, national security adviser and senior diplomats.

The 55-year-old Sri Lankan politician is not in government. National People’s Power, the political alliance he leads, isn’t even the principal opposition. It has only three seats in the country’s 225-member parliament, where it’s the fourth-largest force. And his party has often been seen as close to China, India’s principal geopolitical rival.

But for months now, Dissanayake has enjoyed a different kind of authority within Sri Lankan politics, which has in turn earned him recognition as a rising political force even from regional superpower India.

He is a surprise top contender for the country’s presidency, when the Indian Ocean island votes on September 21. Some opinion polls even suggest he could be the frontrunner, among a crowd of 38 candidates.

It’s a lineup littered with familiar faces from the country’s most prominent political families: Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa; Sajith Premadasa, the son of another former president, R Premadasa; and incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinge, a nephew of the country’s first executive President JR Jayewardene.

Dissanayake stands out among that set: He is the leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a party that has never previously been close to national power and that twice led Marxist insurrections against the very state