KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 ― Bersatu associate wing information chief S. Subramaniam today welcome MIC and MCA to join Perikatan Nasional (PN).

He suggested that the two parties abandon their Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and the unity government since they had been sidelined by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim led unity government.

Subramaniam told Malaysiakini that the two parties are also not appreciated by BN chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

"This clearly shows the parties are no longer being appreciated by Zahid.

"So, I am asking MCA and MIC to rethink their position in BN, and they are welcomed to join PN,” he said.

The Bersatu man added that both parties might lose influence and become irrelevant in the political scene if they continue to stay in BN for the upcoming state elections.

"From what I was informed, both parties were not even invited to discuss seat allocation for the state elections.

"Most probably they would get maybe one seat in each state, or maybe none at all.

"This is because of vindictive politics practised by certain Umno leaders against the two parties,” Subramaniam told the online news portal.

He was referring to the incident in 2021, when MCA and MIC leaders disagreed with certain Umno leaders who wanted to withdraw their support for Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin during his tenure as the prime minister.

Umno currently has six ministers and five deputy ministers in the unity government led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, while another BN party PBRS has a deputy minister.

Both MCA and MIC have no ministerial posts in the unity government despite winning three parliamentary seats in the 15th General Election (GE15), namely Tanjung Piai and Ayer Hitam by MCA, and Tapah by MIC.