Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

In­cum­bent Cou­va South MP Rudranath In­dars­ingh, who was not se­lect­ed to con­test his seat in the up­com­ing Gen­er­al Elec­tion, was praised by his col­leagues for his loy­al­ty and dis­ci­pline.

In­dars­ingh was one of the speak­ers at a UNC com­mu­ni­ty meet­ing in Debe on Tues­day night, one day af­ter Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bissses­sar an­nounced at Eid cel­e­bra­tions in Princes Town that he was be­ing re­placed by Bar­ry Padarath.

Af­firm­ing his com­mit­ment to the par­ty, In­dars­ingh, who served the Cou­va South con­stituen­cy for three con­sec­u­tive terms, de­clared that pol­i­tics was not for the faint-heart­ed.

“Pol­i­tics is about those who are com­mit­ted to a prin­ci­ple, a cause, who un­der­stand a phi­los­o­phy, who un­der­stand what it means to be in a par­ty that has had its roots on be­half of all the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.” Padarath, the out­go­ing Princes Town MP, of­fered a “spe­cial thank you” for In­dars­ingh for show­ing a “tremen­dous amount” of dis­ci­pline, strength and re­al uni­ty.

He lat­er re­ferred to a states­man, who was not named, who he said un­der­stood that when the UNC wins, every­body wins.

“It’s not about po­si­tion, it’s not about seat, it’s about par­ty, and it’s about coun­try mov­ing for­ward,” Padarath said.

In­cum­bent Barataria/San Juan MP Sad­dam Ho­sein praised In­dars­ingh for show­ing “mag­na­nim­i­ty” and “uni­ty with­in the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress.”

He said Per­sad-Bisses­sar was a mag­net of uni­ty who had brought to­geth­er a coali­tion of in­ter­ests for the April 28 elec­tion which he pre­dict­ed they will win.

Padarath has been re­placed by Dr Aiy­na Ali as the UNC’s Princes Town can­di­date.