OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s hopes of becoming the Political Leader of the United National Congress (UNC) and the first female prime minister of this country have been dashed.

Sources say that financier Jack Warner, Deputy Political Leader of the UNC, wants former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to lead the party into the next general elections if the current leadership crisis is not resolved.

One UNC official said that when Persad-Bissessar took over from Basdeo Panday as Opposition Leader she was told that her appointment was a temporary one.

But she had high hopes that she would head the party if Political Leader Winston Dookeran, who was by-passed for the post of Opposition Leader, was expelled from the UNC, one activist said.

Panday, was fired as opposition leader by President Max Richards after he was convicted and jailed for two years by Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls for failing to declare a London bank account while he was prime minister in l999.

Maharaj, who has returned to the UNC after a fallout with Panday, has indicated he is ready to take over leadership of the UNC if the party’s membership wishes him to do so, according to a report in a daily newspaper last Friday.

“Kamla always knew that Maharaj would be a threat to her when he comes back into the party.

“This can cause the UNC to mash up,” the official said.

On Wednesday, a vote of no confidence in Dookeran was taken by the executive of the UNC.

There are moves now to expel Dookeran from the leadership of the party.

One top party official said the UNC is broke and has to depend on Warner to finance the party.

A number of financers of the UNC have left after the party lost the last general elections and Warner, who is now the major financier, is calling the shots.

“The executive can’t make a decision without the approval of Warner,” one source said.

Some UNC supporters are putting a racial slant to Warner’s team of Wade Mark, Dr. Rupert Griffith, Dr. Daphne Phillips and Jennifer Jones-Kernahan, saying that a black caucus had taken control of the party, reminiscent of a UNC slogan a few years ago, “we come too far to turn black now.”