KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 ― A meeting of the Barisan Nasional (BN) supreme council has reportedly been called by the MIC to discuss the current status and direction of the coalition’s leadership. 

A report by Sinar Harian said that MIC President Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran called for the meeting due to Umno supreme council’s caretaker status as announced by the Registrar of Societies (RoS). 

He said Umno is unable to make any substantive decisions and called for reins to be handed over temporarily to another component party agreed by members of the coalition. 

He added that if the decision to temporarily hand over key BN positions currently held by Umno leaders does not happen, he fears that all decisions made by the coalition after June 30 would not apply and could be challenged in the court of law. 

"We have requested the BN Supreme Council meeting to be held in the near future as we are concerned with the current status of the coalition's leadership following the announcement made by RoS on the status of the Umno supreme council personnel being only caretakers. 

"When that happens, we worry that any decision made by the BN chairman, who is also president of Umno, would be considered illegal and invalid. 

"In order to avoid these consequences, BN needs to decide on handing over the highest position of the coalition to any component party that gets the approval of all parties, temporarily,” he reportedly said. 

On August 10, RoS director-general Jasri Kasim said the Umno council, led by its president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, can only carry out party administration work.

He added that any implementation or policy decision must be presented to the Umno general assembly first.

The RoS on Sunday recommended that Umno hold its party elections no later than the end of this year.

Umno has denied the RoS allegation and claimed it received a letter from the RoS director-general dated July 19 stating that it had no objection to the postponement of the elections according to Umno Constitution Article 10.16.

This also comes amid a rift in BN, with MCA and MIC backing the Perikatan Nasional government in defiance of its dominant party Umno which has yanked its support.