In 1936, Keerthiratne contested the
Dedigama electorate in the
second State Council election against four main contestants,
Dudley Senanayake, Richard Nugewela, P. B. Dedigama and Mudliyar J.W. Udalagama. Keerthiratne and his supporters were severely harassed and by some of the opponents there who were preventing him from running successful campaign. He responded to this by hiring a small aircraft and distributing election leaflets from the air, thereby making history — as this was the first time it was done in Sri Lanka. Senanayake was eventually elected with 17,045 votes with Keerthiratne securing 8,746 votes, whilst the other three candidates only received 1,476 amongst them. Keerthiratne and his younger brother
Asoka Karunaratne were known for their unique manner of breaking down barriers—by embracing a cooperative way of enriching relationships between individuals and groups. He represented the lower classes and minority castes, giving them a voice in the political arena for the first time. In the words of N.H. Keerthiratne who gave an interview in March 1978, "These people were not given any responsible position in the country. Their job was planting. For that there is no objection. So we started planting, coconuts, any other things, vegetables, we began planting and making money.... Even those caste minded people wanted money, so they had to come to these people who were making money." In June 1939, Keerthiratne established the "Shasthrodaya Society" with the intention of uplifting the lives of underprivileged children in rural villages. Under this scheme, he was able to build more than 50 schools, which, in later years had an immense impact on development and well-being of the people in the communities. Keerthiratne contested in the
Kegalle electorate during the
first Parliamentary election of Sri Lanka in 1947, against R. V. Dedigama, and won by obtaining 14,550 votes. He retained the seat at the subsequent
parliamentary elections in 1952, securing approximately 65% of the vote. In 1953, he was appointed
Parliamentary secretary to the
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications by
Prime Minister Sir
John Kotelawala. Keerthiratne has the unique distinction of being the first person to send a
telegram in
Sinhala. In 1956 he contested the
Mawanella electorate, losing to
C. R. Beligammana by over 7,500 votes. At the
4th parliamentary election held in March 1960 he ran as the
United National Party candidate in the Kegalle electorate, but was defeated by the incumbent member,
P. B. G. Kalugalla, by 1,608 votes. He ran again for the same seat at the subsequent
elections in July 1960, again losing to Kalugalla. Keerthiratne was a devout Buddhist and built more than thirty Buddhist temples throughout the island of Sri Lanka during his lifetime. His son Mihindu is a renowned architect, who designed the present
United National Party headquarters in Pitakotte. ==Honours==