Shas­tri Boodan

Come Jan­u­ary 24, UNC sup­port­ers will de­cide whether or not Bas­deo Pan­day is boot­ed out as the par­ty's po­lit­i­cal leader. The par­ty's spe­cial na­tion­al as­sem­bly met yes­ter­day at Rien­zi Com­plex in Cou­va, and passed a mo­tion to have the par­ty's in­ter­nal elec­tions be­fore the lo­cal gov­ern­ment polls. Pan­day told the gath­er­ing he would con­test the post of the par­ty's po­lit­i­cal leader for sev­er­al rea­sons. Pan­day said he want­ed UNC sup­port­ers to use the in­ter­nal elec­tion as a ve­hi­cle to tell him if he should leave or lead the par­ty.

"When you tell me to go, I shall go will­ing­ly. That is why I am con­test­ing the par­ty elec­tions on the 24th Jan­u­ary, 2010. That will be your chance to tell me if to go or to stay." Pan­day said he was fight­ing the seat with his own slate, with peo­ple he could trust, for the oth­er posts on the par­ty's na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive. Pan­day said he had been mak­ing ef­forts to get the op­po­si­tion forces to unite.

The T&T Guardian spoke with Jack Warn­er, Ch­agua­nas West MP, yes­ter­day, be­fore he start­ed his sec­ond day of walk­ing through his con­stituen­cy to cel­e­brate his sec­ond year as a par­lia­men­tar­i­an. Warn­er said he re­ceived calls from UNC sup­port­ers for Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, the Siparia MP, to be the par­ty's next po­lit­i­cal leader. When asked for a com­ment af­ter the spe­cial na­tion­al as­sem­bly, Per­sad- Bisses­sar said she was not tak­ing any ques­tions from the me­dia at the time.