Kamla can be credible UNC leader: Dookeran

The leader of the Congress of the People believes that UNC deputy leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is a credible candidate to be the future leader of the United National Congress (UNC).

The possibility of Persad-Bissessar leading the opposition party was raised on the floor of the UNC congress on Sunday in an impassioned plea from a delegate who told UNC Political Leader Basdeo Panday to step aside now and let Persad-Bissessar take over as interim leader.

"It is not that I love Mr Panday less, but I love this party more...this has nothing to do with you or Mrs Persad-Bissessar. This has to do with...the members of the party, and getting into government," the delegate said, who was identified only as Abdul.

Panday thanked the man and said his observations "would be taken into consideration."

Read the story:UNC delegate tells Panday step aside and let Kamla lead

Dookeran told the Trinidad Guardian he believes one of the more interesting things to come out of the UNC congress was the lobby for the former education minister and attorney general to take over the leadership.

"I think Kamla is the credible candidate for that option if it were to materialise,” Dookeran said but he didn't go so far as to say if he also sees her as a possible leader in a COP-UNC "arrangement". He said he prefers to let things take their course.

Panday rebuffed COP in his speech to the UNC congress for suggesting that the UNC should join COP.

"Can you imagine a political party that failed to win a single seat in the last parliamentary elections telling us in the UNC with 15 seats, more or less, that if we want unity we must dissolve the UNC and join them?

"That suggestion is not only naive, provocative and insulting...it also displays a total lack of understanding of the political reality, Panday said.

Read the story: Panday...rejects COP's unity call as rude and insolent

But Dookeran told the Guardian such comments won't discourage him from seeking unity among the country's political groups. Dookeran has been holding talks with both the UNC and its breakaway Ramjack faction with a view to creating a united opposition that can defeat the PNM in a general election.