Panday to choose Ganga to lead UNC

UNITED NATIONAL Congress (UNC) founding member Trevor Sudama yesterday predicted the only way Basdeo Panday would resign as UNC political leader is by choosing his own heir, and Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh is that man. Gazing into his political crystal ball, the former government minister predicted that there will be no change in the UNC’s hierarchy when the party holds its internal elections in July. Sudama said despite Panday’s public pledge to retire from active politics at age 70, the UNC leader “is not interested in removing himself” and will only step aside once he can “engineer” his replacement. He said within the UNC’s current parliamentary cadre, Panday “favours Ganga Singh to take over the leadership” because of the intimate relationship (politically and socially) between them.

Singh has repeatedly denied having any desire to become UNC political leader and a series of NACTA polls over the last year indicate that the party stands no chance of regaining political power under Singh. Those polls have favoured St Augustine MP Winston Dookeran to replace Panday, but Dookeran has also denied having leadership ambitions. Sudama added that Panday could never totally relinquish control over the UNC and must “keep a foot inside.” The former minister said the only chance of replacing the People’s National Movement (PNM) as the government is for all the anti-PNM forces “to rally under one banner.” Sudama conceded that political formula was used to achieve this goal, the overriding goal of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) in 1986, to vote out the PNM. “We (parties comprising the NAR) never sat down in 1986 and said what is it we are going to do,” he stated.

Sudama added that the NAR would have remained a viable political entity if it had properly managed the political diversity within its ranks in 1986. The former minister said he was unaware about National Team Unity leader Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj’s plans to build “a new political vehicle” because he has not been a part of those discussions. Sudama said there was no rift between himself and Maharaj but simply “no communication.” Sudama added that he remains politically unattached at this point and does not foresee any major changes on the political landscape anytime soon in 2004.