The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is stand­ing firm­ly be­hind Ravi Rati­ram. Ac­cord­ing to se­nior par­ty of­fi­cials, Rati­ram, the UNC’s Cou­va North can­di­date, is the vic­tim of an on­line smear cam­paign in which se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions have been lev­elled against him.

Sources con­firmed when the al­le­ga­tions first sur­faced, Rati­ram was ques­tioned by se­nior par­ty mem­bers in­clud­ing po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and he de­nied there was any truth to them.

Con­tact­ed for an of­fi­cial com­ment, the UNC’s Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer Ani­ta Haynes said it was a dan­ger­ous road that peo­ple were head­ing down.

"We are go­ing to end up in a re­al­ly dan­ger­ous po­si­tion if we take things from anony­mous sources on Face­book and make it re­al in news," she said.

"I re­al­ly hope that is not the route all of us are go­ing down."

Dis­miss­ing the claims, Haynes said those re­spon­si­ble want­ed to de­tract from the se­ri­ous work the par­ty was do­ing, but would not suc­ceed.

She de­scribed the en­tire at­tempt to dis­cred­it Rati­ram as "crazi­ness".

Haynes said the UNC was not about hid­ing and as­sured that "if there was any­thing to deal with, we will deal with it."

Ques­tioned about the al­le­ga­tions on Fri­day, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Rati­ram was the par­ty’s pick for Cou­va North and who­ev­er was mak­ing al­le­ga­tions against him should take it to the po­lice. Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­nied claims that at­tor­ney Rishi Tri­pathi had been tipped to re­place Rati­ram.

Speak­ing in Pe­nal af­ter she filed nom­i­na­tions pa­pers, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said "I am the leader of this par­ty, I am al­so the head of the par­ty's screen­ing com­mit­tee. I have no knowl­edge of what you are speak­ing about. The can­di­date for Cou­va North is Ravi Rati­ram. If there are al­le­ga­tions take it to the po­lice. If you have any is­sues against him that are il­le­gal, take it to the po­lice."

Calls to Rati­ram's cell­phone went unan­swered on Sat­ur­day.

Mean­while, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the UNC re­placed its Lopinot/Bon Air West can­di­date Tris­ton Bon­terre III af­ter "he came to the par­ty and said he want­ed to with­draw for per­son­al rea­sons."

Prakash Williams, a re­tired sec­ondary school prin­ci­pal and di­rec­tor at the East­ern Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty re­placed Bon­terre.