Dudley Senanayake by him such as the Minneriya irrigation project. Contesting in the 1947 general elections from the Dedigama electorate, he was elected to the first parliament of independent Ceylon and was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Agriculture and Lands by his father, D. S. Senanayake who became the first Prime Minister of Ceylon in 1947. He continued many of the agricultural projects he started in his first year and started the ambitious Gal Oya Project which provided water for the cultivation of over 120,000 acres. He initiated guaranteed price scheme for paddy and farmers. He received the portfolios of
Dominion of Ceylon and an independent foreign policy as part of the non-aligned movement. In 1948, when Ceylon achieved independence from the United Kingdom, the Governor was replaced with a Governor-General. The Governor-General was responsible not to London, but to the monarch of Ceylon, the local government, and the local parliament. The role was generally ceremonial, however it did come with the 'reserve powers' of the Crown which allowed the Governor General for example to dismiss the Prime Minister (with power such as this, the Governor General had to act as a responsible non political 'referee' of the government, using the national constitution