Couva South MP Rudnarath Indarsingh has branded former UNC Senator and new PNM member Taharqua Obika a political grasshopper. Indarsingh sent a scathing message to Obika and others who recently defected from the UNC to the PNM.
Obika, a former UNC senator, who served up until Friday as the chief economist in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, resigned from the Office of the Opposition Leader on Friday, and also joined the PNM the same day. An economist and banker, Obika contested the Point Fortin seat for the UNC in the 2020 general elections and served as an opposition senator.
Three other UNC councillors have since crossed the floor to the PNM in the lead up to local government elections , to be held on August 14th, 2023. Speaking from his constituency office, Indarsingh said: “I may call them political grasshoppers. I may call them eat ah food, I may call them selling their souls for 30 pieces of silver.