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The sharing of cash and covert meetings with National Democratic Congress (NDC) delegates in the North Tongu constituency of the Volta Region by Deputy Information Minister Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto has set the electoral area on fire, as the sitting MP Charles Sename Hodugbey vows not to succumb to the manouvres of the man he regards as a stranger to the party. Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Castle darling boy, is said to be a frequent visitor to the constituency every weekend with a lot of cash to spend. He is just one of the numerous Mills appointees jostling to claim the seats of sitting MPs who are not ministers. Openly incensed about the clandestine manouvres of the deputy minister, Mr Hodugbey howled, �Deputy Minister my foot�, in outright defiance and readiness to call the bluff of Ablakwa when his attention was called to the fact that the gentleman he is daring is a minister. �I don�t see him as any serious threat. Serious threat in what way? Because he is a deputy Minister? Deputy Minister my foot!� he told Citi FM yesterday. When Ablakwa was contacted, he said he would not comment on his alleged clandestine campaign. News about the contravention by the deputy minister of the party regulations that no moves should be undertaken before the opening of nominations in areas where there are sitting MPs has been in the air for a while now. The MP has accused other government officials of similar breaches in some parts of the country with sitting representatives. The party directive, Hodugbey added, debars all government appointees from clandestine campaigning in areas with sitting MPs for their seats, but the covert activities of the deputy minister appears to be putting the position of the MP on the line, given the unusual kind gestures he has resorted to in the constituency. Some worried party persons have whispered to DAILY GUIDE that a tractor has been made available to undertake ploughing and other pre-sowing activities for farmers in the areas besides other gestures. With the outburst of the MP for the constituency, Charles Hodugbey, matters appear to have reached a head and the die cast for a battle royale between the two party men. DAILY GUIDE has gathered from local party persons that many of them are not enthused about the invasion of their terrain by a man they consider a stranger. This view is shared by the sitting MP who told Citi FM yesterday that the deputy minister is a stranger to the NDC and an opportunist. The MP said Ablakwa�s parentage was not known in the area. He said that the deputy minister was an NPP man and that he was attempting to reap where he did not sow through lavish donations. �We all know where he comes from. We all know. We all know that he was formerly a member of NPP. Yes, I hate to say it, but it is true. People are ready to testify when the right time comes.� In spite of the challenges being posed by the man who has access to more cash and other state facilities to likely cause an upset for him, the MP confidently told his host that he would hand his challenger a sound thrashing if the latter dared him. The delegates, he went on, �are not fools. They know what to do when the appropriate time comes. So if you go to meet them, they are only following you because they think you have money to dispense�. Continuing, he said, �After all, if for several years you have not come to the area to support the party and now that you feel you want to run you want to dispense money, they will take the money.� In a further attempt at denying Ablakwa credibility as an NDC person, he asked where the deputy minster was when the party was in opposition and some of them were engaged in supporting funerals with donations. �When we were in opposition, where were these people? When members of the party die, who goes there to make a donation? When we had to come to a place to meet on party issues, how the party had to be run, where were they? You don�t only come to enjoy because it�s already cooked,� he intimated. Perhaps, this is only a snippet of the picture of the parliamentary contests of the ruling NDC ahead of the 2012 polls. With the minds of delegates too complex to determine their inclination, perhaps the deputy minister could be going into a political battle to make or break his career even as tongues are wagging that he hails from Battor and therefore a total stranger to this part of the country.