For­mer UNC Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al says she is not bit­ter about not be­ing se­lect­ed to con­test a seat in the up­com­ing elec­tion.

“I fight for coun­try, not seat,” she said.

Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al, a moth­er of two, screened for the San Fer­nan­do West and Na­pari­ma seats and had been a favourite among UNC sup­port­ers. She worked in San Fer­nan­do West dur­ing the 2023 lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions and had com­mand­ed sup­port in Na­pari­ma, not on­ly from coun­cil­lors but al­so from mem­bers of the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive.

De­spite be­ing re­ject­ed for both seats, Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al said she re­mained a proud UNC mem­ber and was con­vinced that the UNC was the on­ly par­ty ca­pa­ble of tak­ing the coun­try for­ward to pros­per­i­ty.

Re­spond­ing to com­ments that she had been side­lined, she said: “I have tak­en note of those com­ment­ing on me be­ing out. How­ev­er, one can’t be out if they haven’t even be­gun their in­nings.”

She said she would con­tin­ue to sup­port the par­ty.

“While I am con­fi­dent my time at the crease will come in some form or fash­ion, the one thing I will not do is pick up my bat and go home over a de­ci­sion not be­ing in my favour. The team is big­ger than any in­di­vid­ual and no one is big­ger than the game.”

Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al al­so de­fend­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar, say­ing: “It is un­for­tu­nate that peo­ple use harsh words such as ‘spite­ful’ to de­scribe our leader, the per­son cho­sen by the UNC mem­ber­ship to lead this bat­tle.”

She said Per­sad-Bisses­sar had sup­port­ed her po­lit­i­cal growth.

“Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar has sup­port­ed me as a young woman in pol­i­tics in a way that was very moth­er­ly. Long be­fore I was in the Sen­ate, she took a keen in­ter­est in my abil­i­ties as a young at­tor­ney and cre­at­ed a space for me to grow,” she said, adding tht the UNC po­lit­i­cal leader had al­so sup­port­ed her as a moth­er.

“Most will know that I have a young fam­i­ly and many con­ces­sions were made for me so that I could have a safe preg­nan­cy and ful­fill my moth­er­ly du­ties whilst serv­ing in the Sen­ate.”

She said she was grate­ful for the op­por­tu­ni­ties she had re­ceived.

“For this and all the oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ties af­ford­ed to me. I owe her a debt of grat­i­tude and I wish to dis­pel the nar­ra­tive play­ing out in the me­dia which seeks to char­ac­ter­ize me as a vic­tim, bit­ter, up­set or un­sup­port­ive of the par­ty.”

Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al said she re­mains part of the par­ty’s ef­forts as she urged cit­i­zens to sup­port the par­ty.

“To my fel­low cit­i­zens, get on board the UNC train, we have a coun­try to save!” she de­clared.