Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

?Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj blanked the UNC's con­gress yes­ter­day, and in­stead opt­ed to spend the day tour­ing his con­stituen­cy. In an in­ter­view, Ma­haraj said he wrote the UNC ex­ec­u­tive last week, in­form­ing them that he al­ready had pre-planned com­mit­ments in his con­stituen­cy. He said he re­ceived no­tice of the con­gress on­ly two weeks ago. "I wrote a let­ter to the UNC, in­di­cat­ing this, and I in­formed them that I will at­tend the con­gress meet­ing once I had fin­ished my ac­tiv­i­ties in the con­stituen­cy, but I fin­ished my tour in Caratal late."

Asked whether he be­lieved he would be ac­cused of putting his con­stituen­cy be­fore his par­ty, Ma­haraj said no. He ex­plained: "I don't think my pres­ence is es­sen­tial. It is not the first con­gress that I have not at­tend­ed, and the on­ly thing I would have con­tributed is my pres­ence. "There is a pre-set agen­da, and when I weigh what is in­volved, I have de­cid­ed that my con­stituents need my sup­port. I have to see to the needs of my peo­ple." (RS)