COLOMBO, Dec 9: The Opposition United National Front (UNF) is gearing up for a mass protest against the coalition government of President Chandrika Kumaratunge after the party's national organizer and former UNF minister S. B. Dissanayake , an arch rival of the president was jailed on Tuesday, sending shock waves among Ranil Wickremesinghe's UNF.

The day after the sentence was passed pandemonium reigned in the parliament on Wednesday. MPs exchanged blows and the parliament's sergeant-at-arms was manhandled as the opposition protested against the jailing.

Meanwhile, UNF parliamentarians have decided to bring prisons chief, Rumi Marzook, before the parliamentary privileges committee, as he did not obey the speaker's decision to allow Dissanayake, sentenced for a two years rigorous imprisonment, to attend the parliament session.

Mr Dissanayake was jailed after being found guilty of scandalizing, ridiculing and trying to create public hostility against the apex court in a public speech he had made in November last year.