Renu­ka Singh

For­mer prime min­is­ter and Leader of the Op­po­si­tion Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is fac­ing se­ri­ous heat in­side the par­ty for the five loss­es at suc­ces­sive elec­tions.

While the par­ty has closed ranks af­ter the lat­est de­feat at the gen­er­al elec­tion, the Sun­day Guardian has been in­formed that UNC mem­bers are "dis­heart­ened" with Per­sad-Bisses­sar and are look­ing to vote against her in the long over­due in­ter­nal elec­tions.

The Sun­day Guardian has been re­li­ably in­formed that Per­sad-Bisses­sar would be hard pressed to pull off an in­ter­nal win giv­en the sen­ti­ment in the par­ty at this time. One in­sid­er said even the lat­est Per­sad-Bisses­sar led chal­lenge of the elec­tion re­sults is an at­tempt to "dis­tract" from the loss­es at the polls. The Sun­day Guardian un­der­stands that moves to un­der­mine Per­sad-Bisses­sar be­gan in the last year when par­ty in­sid­ers re­alised the UNC was los­ing favour with the elec­torate.

"Look at the peo­ple who have been in high min­is­te­r­i­al of­fices and let go, they were her main sup­port­ers in­side the par­ty. Who does she have in­side here now?"

The in­sid­er named for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan, for­mer min­is­ter of the Peo­ple Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh and for­mer lo­cal gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Chan­dresh Shar­ma among those who "had her back" in­side the par­ty.

Among those favoured to take over the reins of lead­er­ship are Vas­ant Bharath, Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and Mick­ela Pan­day whose fa­ther, for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day, found­ed the par­ty.

Mooni­lal: We are not ready for in­ter­nal un­til next year

While the Sun­day Guardian was met with si­lence from sev­er­al quar­ters, Mooni­lal said the UNC would not be ready for in­ter­nal elec­tions un­til next year.

"Right now we are re­al­ly fo­cused on the bud­get and then there is Christ­mas which brings the usu­al lull, so we would not be look­ing at the in­ter­nal elec­tions un­til af­ter that which takes us in­to next year," he said. Mooni­lal con­firmed that there was some neg­a­tive sen­ti­ment di­rect­ed to Per­sad-Bisses­sar af­ter the suc­ces­sive loss­es but de­nied that he was prepar­ing him­self to take over the par­ty.

"I mean, if I am called up­on to vie for leader and that de­pends on who is do­ing the call­ing too, then I would con­sid­er it," he said.

He said right now the par­ty was in "con­sol­i­da­tion" mode.

"The in­ter­nal elec­tion would re­ceive our at­ten­tion in due time," Mooni­lal said.

Pan­day: Kam­la can­not win, UNC was stolen and ru­ined

But while Mooni­lal did not say how he felt about Per­sad-Bisses­sar fol­low­ing the loss­es, for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day had no such prob­lem.

"I think it's ob­vi­ous she can­not win an elec­tion. I think the peo­ple who are the UNC need to take back their par­ty be­cause it was stolen in 2010 and ru­ined," Pan­day said.

Pan­day said the im­age of the UNC was dam­aged and now the par­ty was seen as a "bunch of cor­rupt, in­com­pe­tent, self-seek­ers."

He said as it stood now, no one knew who were the re­al mem­bers of the par­ty.

De­spite his very neg­a­tive view of the par­ty he found­ed, Pan­day said he was not coach­ing his daugh­ter to take over the helm.

"I have the for­tune or mis­for­tune of hav­ing chil­dren who are in­de­pen­dent mind­ed and can­not be coached," he said. He said that his daugh­ter would have his bless­ing if she chose to take over the UNC.

Sev­er­al at­tempts to reach Mick­ela Pan­day were un­suc­cess­ful.