Anerood Jugnauth - Enmity Within Politics

Enmity Within Politics

Jugnauth was well known enemy with Navin Ramgoolam and his party, the Labour Party, his present ally. In 1987 elections, late Sir Satcam Boolell, then leader of the Labours did not approve the coalition between Jugnauth's MSM, Duval's PMSD and their parties. This led to their official break up in 1988 but 11 members of parliament continued to support the MSM and thus broke the Labour Party in two blocks.

Jugnauth managed to keep a working majority and once again remained Prime Minister until 1991 when he calls for new elections The MSM made an alliance with the MMM and one block of the broken Labour Party namely the Democratic Labour Movement (MTD), led by Anil Baichoo, a minister which recently merged again with the Labours.

The 1991 elections saw Jugnauth remaining to power for a third consecutive term. Navin Ramgoolam and other leaders of the labour Party denounced the authoritarian style of leading the cabinet. In 1995, Ramgoolam proposed an alliance to the MMM and the result was the Labour-MMM alliance won all the seats thus making the second 60–0 of Mauritian political history. Jugnauth lost his seat in his constituency and this was the worst time that the MSM team had experienced since their creation.

In 2005, Jugnauth suffered one of the biggest humiliations in politics. Ramgoolam and the Social Alliance which won the elections demanded that Prime Minister and all ministers shall be appointed in front of the government house in public which is normally carried out at the STATE HOUSE in front of the President. It was noticed when appointing Ramgoolam, Jugnauth wanted to shake hands, but the other man refused, stepping aside. In May 2010, as the MSM joined hands with the Labour Party, Jugnauth released a press interview in the newspaper stating that he never liked the MMM and that they never had the intention to pursue development but rather strive for power only. He mentioned that Paul Berenger should be not trusted and Ramgoolam would be a better choice. The consequences were that the MSM-Labour alliance won together 41 with the support of the Social Democrats.