KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

De­spite not be­ing ap­point­ed to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s new Cab­i­net or the Sen­ate, for­mer Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al says she re­mains ful­ly com­mit­ted to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC).

There had been spec­u­la­tion that Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al would be named Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate. How­ev­er, dur­ing Fri­day’s open­ing of the 13th Par­lia­ment un­der the new UNC-led ad­min­is­tra­tion, nei­ther she nor Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) po­lit­i­cal leader Prakash Ra­mad­har was sworn in among the re­main­ing gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors.

Asked about Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al’s ab­sence in an in­ter­view out­side Par­lia­ment on Fri­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “There will be a space and place for her.”

Ear­li­er this month, Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al, an at­tor­ney, af­firmed her readi­ness to serve, say­ing, “I re­main will­ing to serve as the PM sees fit.”

Re­spond­ing to the Sun­day Guardian via What­sApp yes­ter­day, Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al re­it­er­at­ed her sup­port for the Gov­ern­ment, say­ing,

“The Hon Prime Min­is­ter knows best, and I re­main not just com­mit­ted but ex­cit­ed to see our gov­ern­ment bring the changes cit­i­zens need. We de­serve good gov­er­nance, and I have faith that this Gov­ern­ment will de­liv­er.”

Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al was ap­point­ed an Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor on Au­gust 28, 2020, and served un­til the dis­so­lu­tion of Par­lia­ment last April. Dur­ing her tenure, she ac­tive­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in de­bates and scru­ti­nised sev­er­al ma­jor pieces of leg­is­la­tion, in­clud­ing na­tion­al bud­get bills, the Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment and Dis­pos­al of Pub­lic Prop­er­ty (Ex­emp­tion) (Fi­nanc­ing Ser­vices) Or­der 2023, the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment) Bill 2020, the Bail (Amend­ment) (Ex­ten­sion of Du­ra­tion) Bill 2022, and the Na­tion­al Em­blems of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Reg­u­la­tion) (Amend­ment) Bill, 2025.

Al­though she was screened as a po­ten­tial UNC can­di­date for both the San Fer­nan­do West and Na­pari­ma con­stituen­cies ahead of last month’s gen­er­al elec­tion, she was not se­lect­ed to con­test ei­ther seat. In­stead, Dr Narindra Roop­nar­ine was cho­sen to rep­re­sent the UNC in Na­pari­ma while Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Michael Dowlat got the par­ty’s nod for San Fer­nan­do West.