He has confronted a bewildering inversion in his fortunes.
This is the man who presents himself as the warrior ruler who, in 2009, finished the island country's 26-year-long common war.
The nation's Tamil minority paid an awful cost for his "triumph". One UN report assesses that 40,000 Tamil regular citizens were murdered in the most recent couple of weeks of the war.
Be that as it may, at last putting an end to years of contention demonstrated colossally prominent with the greater part Sinhalese populace and Rajapaksa and his family appeared to be set to run Sri Lanka for a considerable length of time to come.
He finished the two-term limit for president and had all the earmarks of being prepping his eldest child for force.
That all changed in January when, in a selling out deserving of a Shakespearean show, Rajapaksa was unseated.
His uncharismatic wellbeing clergyman Maithripala Sirisena out of the blue won a restricted larger part in the presidential races, remaining against his previous political expert.
In any case, Rajapaksa is back, now standing not for president, but rather to be a humble MP - in spite of the fact that he says he anticipates that his gathering will do alright to guarantee he will get to be PM.
When I identifies with him in the kitchen of his enormous house in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, he let me know he was just running by mainstream request.
"They need me," he said. "I thought I'd resigned however when I backtracked to my town, you ought to have seen the lines! There were more than 100,000 individuals."
That may be thus, however there are other convincing explanations behind Rajapaksa to need to come back to control.
Since he lost the administration, his notoriety has gone under assault. Individuals from his inward circle have been blamed for joining, misuse of force and much murder. They deny the affirmations.
In the interim Rajapaksa, the so called father of the new Sri Lankan country, is asserted to have been included in defilement on an epic scale.
He let me know he was a casualty of smears put about by his adversaries.
"This is every political trap," he demanded when we talked. "Politically they need to assault us so they will do that."
I got some information about the assertions that billions of dollars had been stolen amid his time in force.
"So why not help us discover this cash?" he yapped irately, as his escort cleared the noticeably aggravated previous president out of the house and into a holding up Mercedes.
He was additionally anticipated at a colossal rally simply outside Colombo.
His push to turn into a MP is being keep running as though he was still a presidential hopeful. Before he takes to the stage there are interminable addresses by stooping supporters, tunes lauding his numerous excellencies, and swooping cameras to venture pictures of his cheering fans onto immense TV screens.
He told the group the genuine debasement is in the new government, refering to an asserted trick including the offer of government bonds.
He additionally cautions that the present government's arrangements to degenerate energy to the Tamil north will part the country in two.
Be that as it may, it isn't clear he has the consideration of some of his key supporters. Amid his discourse I looked as one of the dignitaries on the platform behind him drooped forward tenderly and fell asleep.
What's more, his contentions appear to be failing to receive any notice amongst the general population as well. He's relied upon to win his parliamentary seat easily however a late supposition survey proposes his gathering is trailing essentially behind the administration.
By and by it is inappropriate to compose the old warhorse off yet.
The way that he is remaining at all is demonstration of this veteran government official's diligence, and the enormous turnout at his arouses shows regardless he has some energetic supporters.
