Fernando became involved in politics whilst at university and in 1944 dropped out of university to work full-time for the Ceylonese branch of the
Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma (BLPI). He met
Edmund Samarakkody, with whom he would be politically associated with for most of his life, whilst working for the BLPI. He did not have a car and traveled to Parliament by bus. Whilst Ceylon's main political parties, the
United National Party (UNP) and
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), supported the
Sinhala Only Act, the leftists, led by the LSSP, opposed the act. In May 1960 LSSP leader
N. M. Perera proposed that the party form a coalition government with SLFP. The LSSP joined the SLFP
government in June 1964. LSSP members who opposed the move (Fernando,
V. Karalasingham, Samarakkody,
Bala Tampoe etc.) left the LSSP and formed the
Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary) (LSSP(R)) with Samarakkody as its secretary. Samarakkody fell out with LSSP(R) leader Tampoe and in 1968 left the party, together with Fernando, and founded the
Revolutionary Sama Samaja Party (renamed Revolutionary Workers Party in 1973). Fernando supported the
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna's
1971 insurrection. He took an active role in the 1980
general strike. Fernando died on 27 May 2007 at his home in Koralawella, Moratuwa. ==Electoral history==