Panday: I am willing to talk with Ramesh

Panday’s startling disclosure came against a backdrop of intense fighting already starting to take shape between his slate and the UNC progressives for the October 2 national executive elections and doubts in some quarters about the effectiveness of St Augustine MP Winston Dookeran as UNC political leader to lead the party to victory at the polls.

Panday told Newsday that he was not about to dismiss outrightly any proposal offered by the man whom many UNC supporters believe to be the better leader than Dookeran and with whom Panday formed a powerful political partnership which guided the UNC to government in 1995.

Recent North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) polls have consistently reported large majorities of UNC supporters holding firm to the position that a Panday-Maharaj partnership can place the UNC back into power and Maharaj was the natural successor to Panday.

The UNC leader has consistently rejected the findings of all NACTA polls.

Panday said while Maharaj has not spoken to him directly about either returning to the UNC or forming an alliance with the party, he would keep "an open mind" about any proposal which Maharaj makes to him. Maharaj has said he would consider returning to the UNC if the party was reformed. Several UNC MPs have expressed grave reservations about Maharaj returning to the UNC.

The UNC leader also said he was not averse to talking with Maharaj, despite the fact that his former attorney general slammed him for not investigating allegations of corruption against UNC government ministers while the party was in power.