The apparent “defection” of three Congress of the People (COP) members was a staged, made-for-TV event and was part of Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley’s latest manoeuvre to present himself as the new messiah of T&T.
Drawing to him a bunch of “defectors” from other political parties, particularly from the COP and UNC, was all part of Rowley’s strategy to present himself as a national leader.
This was the strong charge from COP general secretary Clyde Weatherhead yesterday who said two of the so-called COP trio were not even members of his party.
Kishore Ramadhar, Satu-Ann Ramcharan and Rudolph Hanamji, wearing white COP shirts, stood out in a crowd of red at a PNM public meeting in Charlieville on Tuesday night. Media reports said Rowley embraced and welcomed the small group of COP dissidents into the PNM.
Weatherhead said Ramadhar, brother of COP leader Prakash Ramadhar, who had been openly campaigning against the party with Hanamji and Ramcharan for a long while, never actually resigned, keeping one foot inside and one outside.
Ramcharan and Hanamji resigned by letters on November 10, 2014.
“This was an act of great hypocrisy on the part of these so-called COP dissidents.
“Two of the leading trio—Satu-Ann Ramcharan and Rudolph Hanamji—are not even members of the COP,” Weatherhead said.
He claimed on Tuesday Hanamji, “in preparation for his role in this TV drama,” surreptitiously made a failed bid to obtain a COP jersey from the party’s supplier.
He said the threesome, now openly supporting the PNM, were the claimants in a defamation suit against Ramadhar, former COP chairman, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, present chairman Jamieson Bahadur, and other party members.
“Ironically, that defamation claim is linked to their suspension which came about when information was brought to the National Council suggesting they supplied the PNM with sensitive COP data during the 2013 local government elections,” he added.
Ramcharan is a former member of the PNM’s Women’s League. Weatherhead said there was no need for Ramcharan and Hanamji to deceive the public since they resigned from the COP eight months ago.
“They could have simply joined the party and donned their red colours,” he added.
He said recently a former UNC regional corporation chairman (Dave Persad) appeared on the PNM platform in the party’s red colour, singing the praises of Rowley as a “corruption fighter”.
Another former COP member, who was a councillor of the Diego Martin Regional Corporation and an Independent Liberal Party 2013 local government candidate, has been on television for the last couple weeks inviting voters to elect Rowley and the PNM.
“This is part of Rowley’s strategy to use these elements to try and convince voters he is a popular leader attracting everyone in his support.
“It says a lot that his catch includes those who have to resort to unprincipled deception about their party membership in order to help him in this desperate attempt to bolster his image for electioneering purposes,” Weatherhead said.