Instead of looking for the employment in the Assistant Government Agent's Service of the Government Civil Service, he became a full-time member of the JVP. He joined the JVP in 1968 and actively joined the 1971 JVP insurrection. After the uprising, he was imprisoned in a prison camp at the same university where he studied, and was released from Magazine Prison in 1976. Then he elected to the Central Committee in 1979 after released from the jail. He joined the Politburo after the JVP was banned. Prior to the banning of the JVP, he was in charge of JVP newspapers and publications, including "Niyamuwa". He was also the head of its cultural wing, and was responsible for maintaining the Shakthi Press, which printed them. Initially, newspapers were registered under Kelly Senanayake's name and later changed to Somawansa Amarasinghe. Initially a fund of Rs. 100,000 was established to start the printing press and a coin tin business was launched throughout the country.