NEWLY-APPOINTED Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar will be a puppet.

She will be controlled by the likes of Basdeo Panday, Jack Warner, Vasant Bharath and other members of the United National Congress (UNC) executive.

This is the view of a number of UNC MPs who did not support her appointment to the top UNC post, insisting she would not act independently but will have to bow to the dictates of party chairman Panday and the executive.

UNC MP Manohar Ramsaran also shares the view that Persad-Bissessar will become a puppet. He is claiming that the “10 days” Persad-Bissessar got to act as Opposition Leader will further divide the UNC.

In criticising her appointment over Political Leader Winston Dookeran, the Chaguanas MP said Persad-Bissessar does not possess leadership qualities or the character for the position of Opposition Leader.

Other UNC MPs are saying that the call by Persad-Bissessar to unite the party and her extension of an olive branch to Dookeran are just a public relations (PR) gimmick.

Just days before her appointment as Opposition Leader, the Siparia MP told a large gathering at the Rienzi Complex, Couva, after the jailing of Panday: “The only leader I know is Basdeo Panday.”

She repeated the statement twice before ending her address.

“How is she going to work with Dookeran who she does not accept as her political leader?” Ramsaran asked.

Barataria MP, Dr. Fuad Khan, who was also critical of how Persad-Bissessar was “hand-picked” for Opposition Leader, is of the opinion that the Opposition would be divided 9-6 in Parliament.

Nine MPs had signed a letter sent to President Max Richards supporting the appointment of Persad-Bissessar as Opposition Leader after President Richards had fired Panday from the post, after he was jailed for two years.

Meanwhile, some MPs who are on Dookeran’s side are claiming that there is a plan to remove either Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan or Sadiq Baksh as senators to make way for the “backdoor” entry of Ramesh Maharaj back into the fold of the UNC.

One supporter of Dookeran also recalled that when former Works Minister Franklin Khan was charged with corruption, there were calls by the UNC for him to be removed as chairman of the People’s National Movement.

“We are now waiting to see if there would be a similar call for Panday to step down as chairman of the UNC, since he has been convicted and jailed,” he added.