KANCHIBIYA PF member of parliament Sunday Chanda says he is going to work with the government of the day to lobby for development for the people in his constituency.

In an interview, Chanda said he had decided to take a back seat in terms of party activities in order to focus on people of Kanchibiya.

“As a member of parliament, I am that conveyor belt, I am the goal in between the people of Kanchibiya and the government. I am going to work with the government of the day to ensure that I lobby for development for my people and I do not apologise for taking such a stance because for development to come to Kanchibiya, for the Luchembe-Kopa road to be done, for the first district hospital to come to Kanchibiya, yes it is the government’s obligation but the more reason why I have to work with the government of the day in lobbying for development. I am not going to get the Luchembe-Kopa road from my party PF, I am going to get it from get from the government. Does that make me a sell out? No, it doesn’t. It speaks to my position as member of parliament and what is expected of me to lobby for development on behalf of my people,” Chanda said.

“With the election to the office of the member of parliament, my constituency is different from the constituencies I served when I was media director. Then, I was serving a political organisation, I am serving a constituency that is in dire need of development and ensuring that we respond to the challenges that our people are faced with. And the sort of challenges I believe with the sort of leadership in place, we should be able to overcome. I think that is the more reason why you have seen that I have taken what you would call a not so active stance in matters to do with the party. I want to focus on Kanchibiya. My preoccupation is to make sure that we have politics of development taking centre stage, that is something that I am subscribing to, that is something I am dedicating myself to. I don’t believe in divisive politics.”

He insisted that his obligation was to the people of Kanchibiya.

“A political party is an open church and there are things you agree with and things you do not agree with. I am not representing members of Patriotic Front in parliament, I am representing the people of Kanchibiya in Parliament. That is my number one obligation. There have been insinuations from some quotas, sometimes colleagues from within the party that those of us who have taken the sort of stance have been probably sold out or whatever it is. The message is very clear that in reading the times, we must understand what is it that the people of Zambia are demanding for us to do. What are the people of Zambia expecting from us? What are the people of Kanchibiya expecting me to do? The first thing they expect me to do is to advance the interests of Kanchibiya,” Chanda said.

“I am grateful that I was adopted on the PF ticket but my number one obligation is to the people of Kanchibiya who voted for me. In fact, majority of those that voted for me might not even be members of my political party. But they voted for me because they believed in Sunday Chanda. My number one allegiance is to the people of Kanchibiya.”

Chanda, however, said he was loyal to his party.

“I am loyal to the party. Somebody was asking me why I am quiet and asking ‘are you still with us?’ I asked them ‘have you seen my resignation letter anywhere? There are insinuations that Sunday Chanda is about to defect, if I defected today, then I trigger a by-election in Kanchibiya and going by our electoral laws, I am not even eligible to contest in that election. So what use will it be to defect to whether the ruling party or Socialist Party today?” asked Chanda.