Kamla meets Dookeran again

In a letter to Dookeran last week, Persad-Bissessar appealed to the UNC political leader to meet with her to discuss ways to unify the party. On Sunday, close aides of Dookeran confirmed receipt of Persad-Bissessar’s letter and said he would be “following it up” during the week.

The aides said Dookeran had not closed the door to meeting with Persad-Bissessar and had twice invited her for follow-up unity talks after they first met last month. They added that Persad-Bissessar declined to attend those meetings, citing prior commitments as her reason for doing so.

When contacted yesterday, Persad-Bissessar said she had spoken with Dookeran late on Monday night and they had agreed to meet either today or tomorrow. The Opposition Leader added that the logistics of the meeting still had to be worked out.

Dookeran was unavailable for comment and aides to the UNC leader said he had a hectic schedule of Indian Arrival Day engagements yesterday. However they confirmed that Dookeran did talk with Persad-Bissessar on Monday night with a view to arranging a meeting with her.

When asked whether she had received Montano’s letter, Persad-Bissessar said she had not seen the letter and reiterated that she had spoken with Dookeran and they would meet either today or tomorrow.

In a letter to Persad-Bissessar on Monday, Montano told the Opposition Leader that her public utterances about uniting the UNC were hollow and reeked of hypocrisy. The former senator cited Persad-Bissessar’s not voting Dookeran to become Opposition Leader, supporting the return of former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to the UNC, supporting the party executive’s ultimatum to Dookeran to explain certain actions on his part and supporting the executive’s decision to suspend Capt Gary Griffith to support his argument.

Montano claimed that the strategies now being employed by Persad-Bissessar and those allied to her will cost the UNC the next general elections which are constitutionally due in 2007.