In collaboration with
S. A. Wickramasinghe he established the Matara Sinhalese Youth Association. He became the joint secretary of the Matara Branch of the
Ceylon National Congress and was also the Secretary of the
Sinhala Maha Sabha. However as the election left neither of the country's two major parties with a majority, another election was called. At the subsequent
July election Wijayawardhena was defeated by the
SLFP candidate,
Mahanama Samaraweera by 2,905 votes. At the
sixth parliamentary elections held in March 1965, Wijayawardhena ran again however this time in the
Kamburupitiya Electoral District. He was again unsuccessful, losing by over 4,500 votes to
Percy Wickremasinghe. Wijayawardhena was an author and also translated the works of
Leo Tolstoy into
Sinhalese. Wijayawardhena died on 14 January 1982 at the age of 77. ==References==