 He contested the 1965 Ceylonese general election from the Akuressa electorate and lost to S. A. Wickramasinghe and the 1970 general election from the Kamburupitiya electorate, but lost to Aelian Mahanaga Nanayakkara.In the early 1970s, he backed J. R. Jayewardene in his leadership bid for the United National Party against Dudley Senanayake.He was appointed by Prime Minister Jayewardene as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence on 1 September 1977 and he served until 15 August 1983.