Rajapaksa set to visit India

This will be Rajapaksa's first overseas tour since being appointed as the Leader of the Opposition last month.

He will leave Friday on an official tour to India, his office said.

Rajapaksa is to deliver a lecture on Sri Lanka-India relations in Bangalore, it said.

His will be his second visit to India within 6 months. In September, he visited New Delhi and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rajapaksa was controversially appointed the prime minister by President Maithripala Sirisena late October, triggering an unprecedented constitutional crisis which lasted for over 50 days. The Supreme Court later restored of Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister.