Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

For­mer Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) chair­man Franklin Khan is the man tipped to be­come the new po­lit­i­cal leader of the par­ty.Sun­day Guardian has learnt that plans are afoot in the par­ty to chal­lenge Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley's lead­er­ship when the par­ty holds it an­nu­al spe­cial con­ven­tion in 2011.

Since the par­ty's for­ma­tion in 1956 it is the first time since the con­ven­tion has been post­poned be­cause of the dwin­dling sup­port in mem­ber­ship.Sev­er­al mem­bers of the gen­er­al coun­cil are qui­et­ly plan­ning to move a no-con­fi­dence mo­tion against Row­ley.

If this hap­pens, the par­ty's ex­ec­u­tive would be called to or­der at the spe­cial con­ven­tion which is the high­est or­der of the par­ty and mem­bers of the gen­er­al coun­cil, cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive and del­e­gates from all 41 con­stituen­cies would vote for a new leader.As po­lit­i­cal leader, Row­ley, who re­cent­ly un­der­went surgery, has been giv­en a five-year term to serve.

Plans to woo East In­di­an sup­port

Top par­ty sources said while for­mer prime min­is­ter, Patrick Man­ning is be­ing eyed as the man to take back con­trol of the par­ty, Khan has the sup­port of the PNM peo­ple.In fact, top par­ty sources fur­ther re­vealed that if Khan had not been hauled be­fore the court on cor­rup­tion charges which he has been re­cent­ly cleared of, the for­mer Works and Trans­port min­is­ter was seen as the next best man to lead the par­ty.

"There were al­ways plans for him in the par­ty but the un­ex­pect­ed hap­pened," a par­ty source re­vealed.Sources said while the elec­torate was wary of Man­ning, a strat­e­gy is be­ing planned where Khan and Man­ning may end up work­ing along­side each oth­er.All of this, the Sun­day Guardian un­der­stands, has been or­ches­trat­ed since the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Roger Gas­pard's de­ci­sion to drop the charges against Khan.

"Khan has al­ways won the sup­port of many. He knows what the po­lit­i­cal ring is about. From the mo­ment he was cleared of the charges a de­ci­sion was qui­et­ly tak­en that he would be the best man to lead the par­ty."Khan, top par­ty sources re­vealed, is al­so be­ing seen as the key per­son to woo East In­di­an sup­port back to the par­ty.

"We have lost al­most all our sup­port and the East In­di­an fac­tor is very cru­cial to any par­ty. We are look­ing at the best way for­ward for the par­ty and tough de­ci­sions would have to be made."

Pe­ti­tion to over­throw Row­ley

Re­li­able sources fur­ther re­vealed to Sun­day Guardian that a pe­ti­tion is ex­pect­ed to be cir­cu­lat­ed to mem­bers to sign in an ef­fort to re­move Row­ley, who some sup­port­ers say is not "a peo­ple's per­son" and who has not been able to pull the par­ty to­geth­er.

Sources said Man­ning's de­ci­sion to re­main silent for six months was a bril­liant move from an ex­pe­ri­enced politi­cian. He then launched out with a sting­ing con­tri­bu­tion in Par­lia­ment against Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's pri­vate dwelling house in south Trinidad. "He is not go­ing to give up. Man­ning is an ex­pe­ri­enced politi­cian," a source added.

Ex­ec­u­tive to meet Khan

How­ev­er, Sun­day Guardian un­der­stands some mem­bers of the ex­ec­u­tive are ex­pect­ed to meet with Khan be­fore he leaves the coun­try next month.

"PNM peo­ple are known to close ranks when they have to. There is no ques­tion that Man­ning has made mis­takes... his time to lead is over but he is an ex­pe­ri­enced politi­cian and can be an as­set to the par­ty. Quite frankly, peo­ple are dis­ap­point­ed with Row­ley.

He has not met the ex­pec­ta­tions of the peo­ple, a source said. "It is go­ing to be hard fight but we are not sat­is­fied with what is go­ing on," an­oth­er source added.Sev­er­al at­tempts to con­tact Row­ley and Khan proved fu­tile.

For­mer PNM PRO de­nies any knowl­edge of plot.Con­tact­ed, for­mer pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Jer­ry Narace dis­tanced him­self from the plot.An ex­treme­ly jovial Narace said: "I am out of the coun­try. I have ab­solute­ly no knowl­edge of what you are talk­ing about but I want to wish every­body well; for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, Dr Row­ley and Mr Khan, even the new Prime Min­is­ter and in ex­ten­sion may I wish all a hap­py hol­i­day."