Dinesh Gunawardena

Dinesh Chandra Rupasinghe Gunawardena (2 March 1949 – ) is a Sri Lankan Leftist politician. He is a Member of Parliament and a Cabinet Minister and is Leader of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (People's United Front). He is a son of Philip Gunawardena and Kusuma Gunawardena.

He received his schooling at Royal College, Colombo. He went for higher studies to the Netherlands, where he received a Diploma in International Business from the Netherlands School of Business and to the USA, obtaining a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Oregon.

Returning to Sri Lanka, he entered politics in 1973, becoming Leader of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) that year. He contested the general election of 1977 unsuccessfully, but won a bye-election for the Maharagama constituency in May, 1983 and was elected a Member of Parliament. He was an active member of the Opposition, which was outnumbered 5:1 in the House.

In 1989, he contested the General Election in the Colombo District, successfully, under Proportional Representation.

In 1994 he contested the General Election in the Colombo District once again, but was unsuccessful.

In 2000, entering the People's Alliance (PA), he was again elected in the General Election from Colombo District. He was appointed Minister of Transport on 19 October 2000. On 14 September 2001, the subject of Environment was added to his portfolio.

In 2001 he was elected again from the Colombo District in the General Election, but the defeat of the PA meant that he once more sat in the Opposition.

In 2004, entering the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), he again contested the General Election successfully from the Colombo District. He was appointed Minister of Urban Development and Water Supply and Deputy Minister of Education on 4 October 2004. On 22 November 2005, he resigned from the position of Deputy Minister of Education.

In the Cabinet re-shuffle of February 2007, he was appointed Minister of Urban Development and Sacred Areas Development.