SUNGAI SIPUT, March 13 — MIC will file an election petition to challenge the Bukit Batu state seat results in the just concluded Johor election, said its president Tan Sri S. A. Vigneswaran.

He said MIC’s candidate S. Suppayah lost to PKR’s Arthur Chiong Sen by a majority of just 137 votes.

"We will file a petition because during the counting process, we found that the number of spoilt votes at 650 was higher than the winning majority.

"We did state our objection (during vote counting) but a protest needs to be lodged through the right channels,” he said.

Vigneswaran told reporters this after presenting laptops to 32 university and polytechnic students at the Perak Indian Education Fund Assistance presentation programme at the Sungai Siput MIC service centre here today.

In the Johor election, MIC won three—Kemelah, Kahang and Tenggaroh—of the four seats it contested.

Vigneswaran said MIC’s three-seat win showed that the people have accepted and want Barisan Nasional (BN) back to form the government again.

"We find that Indian voters have returned to BN; this is no longer a rhetoric. Hopefully, we can also receive the support of Indians at the 15^th general election,” he said.

In GE14, MIC won the Tenggaroh and Kahang state seats but lost in Gambir and Skudai. — Bernama