For­mer Ch­agua­nas West MP Jack Warn­er said UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar does not have the im­age to win the sup­port of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

He was at the time en­dors­ing Vas­ant Bharath’s Team Lo­tus slate for this Sun­day’s UNC’s in­ter­nal elec­tions for the posts of po­lit­i­cal leader and the par­ty’s ex­ec­u­tive.

Warn­er told the meet­ing at the Gas­ton Courts, Ch­agua­nas that Per­sad-Bisses­sar has lost the trust and faith of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Cit­ing an ex­am­ple Warn­er said Jer­lene John could have won the La Hor­quet­ta–Tal­paro seat in the 2020 Gen­er­al Elec­tions but the peo­ple re­fused to trust John with their vote be­cause Per­sad-Bisses­sar was the leader.

He said the poor lead­er­ship ex­hib­it­ed by Per­sad-Bisses­sar re-en­er­gised the PNM caus­ing the UNC to lose sev­er­al seats that could have eas­i­ly won.

Warn­er said the in­ter­nal elec­tions are about brand de­vel­op­ment, he said Bharath presents a “sober im­age” that T&T is will­ing to ac­cept “Vas­ant will nev­er be an em­bar­rass­ment to the UNC,” he said.

Warn­er, who re­ceived a stand­ing ova­tion as he took the podi­um, an­nounced that he and many oth­ers who had left the par­ty would glad­ly re-en­ter in­to the folds of the UNC should Bharath be­come the leader.

He said Bharath’s uni­ty team seems like 2010 all over again when Bas­deo Pan­day was de­throned as the UNC leader.

He said, “It is clear that un­der the present po­lit­i­cal leader of the UNC the par­ty would nev­er see gov­ern­ment again.”

Warn­er said the group strug­gling to save Per­sad- Bisses­sar is un­aware of the par­ty’s his­to­ry and the role Bharath played in get­ting Warn­er to meet with Pan­day pri­or to 2007.

Warn­er said had they not met the UNC would have been rail­road­ed by the COP who may have gone on to be the of­fi­cial op­po­si­tion in 2007.

He said, “Vas­ant came to see me, and we put our heads to­geth­er and turned things around, they don’t know that.” Warn­er said when Pan­day agreed to go the mood of the mem­bers changed in 2010. Warn­er said the PP was formed fol­low­ing the sign­ing of the Fyz­abad Ac­cord to merge the par­ties in­to a po­lit­i­cal force.

He said, “At that time Kam­la­ma­nia was the or­der of the day. Kam­la­ma­nia is no longer the case to­day. Kam­la­ma­nia is dead, dead, dead. A dull mood now over­shad­ows the UNC and that dull mood will con­tin­ue to over­shad­ow the par­ty if there is no change my friends.”

Warn­er added,” the UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad- Bisses­sar has for­got­ten how to win. She has been de­feat­ed so many times that any minute fig­ment of suc­cess seems ac­cept­able to her.”