Gail Alexan­der

Cou­va South MP Kelvin Ram­nath has re­fused to al­low new UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to use his con­stituencey of­fice hall to meet his con­stituents on Feb­ru­ary 22. Ram­nath con­firmed the sit­u­a­tion yes­ter­day. He said his Cou­va South ad­min­is­tra­tor had been ap­proached on use of the hall by new UNC par­ty or­gan­is­er Vi­nosh Ma­haraj. The lat­ter is part of the new UNC ex­ec­u­tive head­ed by Per­sad-Bisses­sar. A se­ries of meet­ings have been planned for Per­sad-Bisses­sar to go to all the UNC con­stituen­cies on every Mon­day, over com­ing weeks. She be­gan on Mon­day last with Cou­va North, con­stituen­cy of for­mer leader Bas­deo Pan­day. The lat­ter blanked an in­vi­ta­tion to the meet­ing in his seat.

Yes­ter­day, Ram­nath said that when the call for use of his con­stituen­cy hall came, the Cou­va South con­stituen­cy ad­min­is­tra­tor re­ferred par­ty or­gan­is­er Ma­haraj to Ram­nath as MP. Ram­nath said he learned the new ex­ec­u­tive had planned to hold a meet-the-peo­ple meet­ing at his Cou­va South of­fice hall on Feb­ru­ary 22. But he said he has not giv­en per­mis­sion for this. "No­body called me... But my po­si­tion is that she and the new team can go and vis­it Laven­tille and the mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies if they want to meet peo­ple and bring in new mem­bers," Ram­nath said. "I'm al­ready be­ing per­ceived as be­ing pro-Bas­deo Pan­day, so I'm not go­ing to pro­vide any venue for them to hold a meet­ing in the con­stituen­cy to fur­ther any more hooli­gan be­hav­iour."