COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse, who conceded defeat Tuesday in parliamentary polls months after being toppled as president, is a polarizing figure.

Rajapakse, who had hoped to become prime minister, won huge popularity among the majority Sinhalese community for crushing Tamil separatist rebels in a no-holds-barred offensive in 2009 that ended a 37-year ethnic war on the island.

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