THE PNM is fancying its chances in Mayaro in the upcoming general election, with the disaffection within the UNC of incumbent Member of Parliament Rushton Paray.Sankar “Bunny” Mahabirsingh, the PNM’s beaten 2020 candidate, has reportedly filed a nomination for another shot at the seat that the party last won in 2007.The ruling party is upbeat about its chances, according to sources, in light of its assessment that Paray’s popularity was a factor in the UNC’s 2020 victory.Paray polled 10,993 to Mahabirsingh’s 7,229 in that election.In 2015, Paray secured 11,730 votes, to PNM Clarence Rambharat’s 8,836.The Member of Parliament is an entrenched businessman and employer with longstanding family roots and social ties in the south-eastern constituency.After he unsuccessfully challenged a slate in the UNC’s internal election backed by leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, there has been speculation about the political fallout in Mayaro.The MP has since been cut off from the UNC’s political activism.“Rushton’s popularity with the people of Mayaro must not be under-estimated,” a party operative said, in recommending reconciliation “to give us the best chance of retaining the seat.”Mahabirsingh, a businessman, also has established links to the community and has been involved in the local government sector.The Government has lately been focusing on the delivery of various goods and services to Mayaro districts, in particular an enhanced water supply.The unemployment rate in Guayaguayare and other south-eastern communities is higher than the national average, and there are bad roads and bridges, and critical housing and other social and economic issues.“We are a model case of rural neglect,” one political activist said.The PNM began strategising about Mayaro only amid the dissension created by Paray’s outspokenness and candidacy in the internal polls.There is speculation that if the UNC sidesteps the incumbent MP, he may challenge for the seat as an independent candidate, giving the PNM a clear path to victory.The PNM last month asked for candidate nominations for Mayaro and seven other constituencies.The PNM is also eyeing other UNC-held seats for the election, due in just over a year.The Government has been providing a significant amount of services – including $1.56 million worth of housing assistance – to residents of Moruga-Tableland, another rural constituency.The PNM won that marginal seat in 2015 but surrendered it to the UNC five years later.Claxton Bay (previously Pointe-a-Pierre) is also in the ruling party’s gaze and it is expected that there will be a pre-election announcement on the lease of the mothballed Petrotrin plant.That will permit the Government to boast about providing jobs and reviving small businesses in the fenceline communities.Indian billionaire industrialist Naveen Jindal remains the likely leaseholder, ahead of nine local bidders, including an Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union subsidiary.The PNM is also hopeful about Chaguanas East, where a government minister is projected to be the candidate.San Juan-Barataria is another constituency being targeted by the ruling party.