Dharmadasa Banda entered active politics in the late 1964 as the chief
United National Party organiser for the
Bibile electorate, after his brother
R. M. Gunasekera, the member for Bibile in 1960, was assassinated in 1964. He contested the seat of Bibile at the
1965 parliamentary election, as the
United National Party candidate, and was elected to parliament, defeating
Ronnie de Mel. He was defeated in the
1970 general election. He entered
Ceylon Law College and qualified as an attorney-at-law. He contested and won in the
1977 general election and was appointed Deputy Minister of Textile and Handloom Industries by Prime Minister
J. R. Jayewardene. Re-elected in the
1989 general election, he was appointed Minister of Agricultural Development and Research in the cabinet of President
R. Premadasa. During his tenure he introduced the farmers’ pension scheme. He was re-elected as a Member of Parliament in the
1994 general election and again in the
2000 general election, but lost the
2001 general election. He was re-elected in the
2004 general election from the
United National Party, and crossed over to UPFA government in 2007. He served as Cabinet Minister for Additional Plantation Crops from 2007 to 2010. His son Hareendra Dharmadasa Bandara served as a Member of Uva Provincial Council and is currently the organizer of Samagi Jana Balawegaya for Bibile electorate. ==References==