Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Op­po­si­tion Leader Bas­deo Pan­day says the new UNC Ex­ec­u­tive is rude to go in­to his Cou­va North con­stituen­cy with­out con­sult­ing him.

Pan­day was re­spond­ing to crit­i­cism lev­elled at him by Ch­agua­nas West MP Jack Warn­er. In a news re­lease state­ment yes­ter­day, Warn­er said it was ma­li­cious for Pan­day to say he was not in­vit­ed to the UNC's "Meet the Con­stituen­cy Tour" which be­gan in Cou­va. De­fend­ing him­self, Warn­er said he per­son­al­ly hand­ed an in­vi­ta­tion to Pan­day dur­ing's Fri­day's sit­ting of Par­lia­ment.

He added: "This is a vi­cious un­truth and an act of de­ceit. Mr Pan­day's trick­ery is a bla­tant at­tempt to paint the new ex­ec­u­tive in the same mold of the ex­ec­u­tive that he led, one that op­er­at­ed with­out any po­lit­i­cal in­tegri­ty. "Pan­day's ex­cess­es are acts of des­per­a­tion that come from a man who is in the twi­light of his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer and has lost the sup­port of the peo­ple and his own po­lit­i­cal cred­i­bil­i­ty and ap­peal." But con­tact­ed on his cel­lu­lar phone yes­ter­day, Pan­day said he must have torn up Warn­er's let­ter, if in­deed he got one.

Asked whether he had re­ceived a let­ter from Warn­er in Par­lia­ment, Pan­day said: "I don't want to com­ment on that. They are rude to come in­to my con­stituen­cy in the first place. I should have been con­sult­ed. But its OK, let them do what they want." Pressed fur­ther, he added: "I must have torn up the let­ter and thrown it away, if in­deed I got it." The "Meet the Con­stituen­cy Tour" comes on the heels of a vis­it by Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning who toured Pan­day's con­stituen­cy yes­ter­day. Dur­ing the meet­ing sev­er­al res­i­dents from Cou­va North said it was the first time they ever had a prime min­is­te­r­i­al vis­it in their area.