Nilenthi Nimal Siripala de Silva (born 6 September 1944) is a Sri Lankan politician who held a number of senior cabinet portfolios. He serves as the acting chairmen of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.^[1] He served as the Leader of the Opposition for a few months in 2015, and has served in several other ministerial posts: he is the former Cabinet Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation in 15th Parliament of Sri Lanka, former Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management, the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation^[2] and former Leader of the House.^[3]

De Silva was born to a family of teachers in Badulla. He was educated at Nalanda College, Colombo where he was a member of the college debating team. He entered Colombo Law College in 1966 and qualified as a proctor in 1971.^[4][5]

Having started his legal practice in 1971, de Silva was active in politics from his student years, having started the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Law Students Association. He supported Sirimavo Bandaranaike in her campaign in the 1970 general election. He travelled to the United Kingdom in 1975 and qualified as a solicitor. He returned to Sri Lanka in 1978, and assisted Bandaranaike in her defense against the Special Presidential Commission appointed by President J. R. Jayawardene to investigate allegations against Bandaranaike for abuses of power during her tenure as Prime Minister.^[4]

He entered parliament in 1989 having been elected from the Colombo Electoral District in the 1989 general election and was re-elected from Colombo till 2000, when he was elected from Badulla Electoral District and had been re-elected consecutively till 2024. He was the Assembly President of the World Health Organization.

On 4 July 1996, De Silva escaped with injuries in an attempted assassination by a LTTE female suicide bomber at the Stanley Road in Jaffna. This incident took place minutes after the Minister declared open a branch of Building Materials Corporation (BMC) in Jaffna. Brigadier Ananda Hamangoda (Jaffna Sector Commander), Ranjith Godamuna (Chairman, Lanka Cement) and 21 others were killed with more than 50 injured in the explosion.^[6]

• Cabinet of Sri Lanka

• Biographies of Present Members
• "Old Nalandians elected MPs to be felicitated". Daily News. Archived from the original on 2 April 2002. Retrieved 27 March 2002.
• "Opposition weaker than ever before -Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva". Sunday Observer. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
• "International concerns on Lanka elections unfounded: Minister". India.com. 11 November 2018 – via PTI.