Shas­tri Boodan

Who will be the next may­or of Ch­agua­nas? Elect­ed Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship coun­cil­lors are look­ing UNC coun­cil­lor for Mon­trose Gopaul Bood­han and for­mer Ch­agua­nas MP Manohar Ram­saran. Bood­han, 50, was nom­i­nat­ed for the post of may­or in 2009 when the coun­cil­lors vot­ed to boot out Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan (now the For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter) and elect Natasha Navas. Navas was elect­ed on the strength of three PNM votes and two UNC votes. Bood­han said he had not heard any word as to who would be the new may­or.

Bood­han, how­ev­er, said he was will­ing to serve the peo­ple in any ca­pac­i­ty. Deputy May­or Or­lan­do Nages­sar, a for­mer may­or him­self, said the par­ty's big­wigs would make the de­ci­sion as to who would lead the busy cen­tral bor­ough. Nages­sar served as may­or from 1999 to 2003. He was re­placed by Ram­bachan. The coun­cil­lor for En­deav­our/Fe­lic­i­ty, Nages­sar re­ceived 2,800 votes in Mon­day's elec­tion. This is the high­est num­ber of votes for any coun­cil­lor on the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion.

Nages­sar, 65, said he, too, will­ing to serve in any ca­pac­i­ty.

Ram­saran is a for­mer MP for Ch­agua­nas and min­is­ter of sport dur­ing the UNC regime of 1995 to 2001. He served in ac­tive pol­i­tics un­til 2006 and is an ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber of the Con­gress of the Peo­ple. He said he was will­ing to serve the peo­ple in what­ev­er ca­pac­i­ty. Ram­saran said mem­bers of the Ch­agua­nas busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and in­flu­en­tial peo­ple had called him and ex­pressed their de­sire to see him serve as may­or. Ram­saran said he would con­sid­er serv­ing. but on­ly af­ter con­sul­ta­tion.