The weekly meeting of the Parliamentary caucus of the United National Front (UNC) and the party's national executive (NATEX) Wednesday is shaping up as a political battlefield with weapons drawn for deputy leader Jack Warner and Warner insisting that nobody could move him.The rift between the party hierarchy at UNC headquarters intensified earlier in the week when Warner and his colleagues voted out Suruj Rambachan as mayor of Chaguanas and elected political novice Natasha Navas tio replace him.
He pulled it off with support from UNC councillors who now support his platform for change and the PNM members of the Chaguanas Borough Council.
He had enraged UNC Leader Basdeo Panday earlier when he voted with the People's National Movement (PNM) on two separate bills;in both instances the party abstained.
It happened while he was building his campaign outside of Parliament for change in the party. Last week, the UNC moved to expel Warner by setting up a disciplinary committee to decide on his fate.
Wednesday's meeting will focus on the single issue of kicking out Warner. The caucus appears determined to do it and UNC stalwart Kelvin Ramnath has said he is prepared to move the motion to get rid of the Chaguanas West MP.
Warner plans to attend the meeting and he is not the least bit bothered at what might happen. He has dismissed the calls for his expulsion, saying the party cannot remove him.
And he is adding salt to the political wounds by declaring that he will soon open an office in Panday's Couva North constituency so he could help the people there. That's in reaction to the party's decision to set up management committees in three constituencies, including Chaguanas West.
Warner is determined to effect change and he said the removal of Rambachan is part of the process.
He told the Trinidad Express Tuesday, "Mr Rambachan has been the most difficult mayor that I know before I became an MP and after I became an MP. He was a mayor who felt he came first, second and third and the constituents came after. He was not a people's person. He was the most hated mayor, the most unpopular that Chaguanas has ever seen."
He also denied that the move against Rambachan was a plot that involved former UNC cabinet minister and current Congress of the People (COP) member Ganga Singh and the PNM.
Panday is upping the ante in Chaguanas. He plans to appoint the three councillors who supported Rambachan Monday as members of a caretaker committee for Chaguanas West.
He told the media he doesn't know the new mayor but said he is not a UNC members. He wants to wait to see if she "will make a mess" of things and noted that she would have to take instructions from the PNM.
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