Report: Three seats offered to ‘Friends of BN’ may have angered MIC

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — MIC’s absence from Barisan Nasional’s (BN) announcement of candidates for the 15th general election (GE15) last night was believed to have been triggered by unhappiness with the coalition’s decision to offer seats to other Indian-based organisations, claimed party insiders.

They said the decision to offer seats to three Indian-based organisations, part of the coalition’s ‘Friends of BN’, had angered the MIC leadership.

Free Malaysia Today (FMT), in a report published late last night, identified the parties as: Makkal Sakti, Indian Progressive Front (IPF) and Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma).

All three had earlier applied to join BN but their membership was strongly opposed by MIC, as the BN constitution says any admission must be a unanimous decision.

Yesterday’s announcement saw Makkal Sakti president T. Thanendran being allocated the Nibong Tebal seat which Gerakan contested when it was in BN, while IPF president T. Loganathan will stand in Jelutong. Kimma president Syed Ibrahim Kader will contest the Puchong seat.

Following that, all 10 MIC candidates who were named by BN chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi were not present. The seat next to MCA chief Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, meant for MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran, was empty.

Quoting party insiders, MIC was contented in terms of the number of seats and the constituencies that were offered by BN.

However, it was dissatisfied with BN for giving out seats to the three organisations that were not officially BN component parties.

“As for MIC’s Sungai Buloh seat, which has been given to Khairy Jamaluddin now, party leaders apparently wanted Puchong and Batu.

“However, MIC only got Batu. Other than this, they got most of what they wanted,” the FMT report quoting an insider.

Another source pointed out that MIC had been a steadfast ally of Umno, especially after its heavy loss in the previous 14th general election (GE14).

“The first by-election after GE14 was for the Cameron Highland seat which was won by an MIC candidate. But a by-election was called after the election court declared the seat vacant.

“Vigneswaran magnanimously gave way to Umno to make its return. And yet he feels they are not grateful,” said the source.

The source added that the party’s emergency central working committee (CWC) will decide on their next course of action today.

Yesterday, BN named 10 MIC candidates who will stand for GE15: Sungai Siput (Vigneswaran), Tapah (M Saravanan), Hulu Selangor (T. Mohan), Teluk Intan (T. Murugiah), Padang Serai (C. Sivarraajh), Batu (A. Kohilan Pillay), Port Dickson (M. Kamalanathan), Kuala Langat (M. Mohana), Kota Raja (D. Kajendran) and Segamat (MP Ramasamy).

However, Vigneswaran and his deputy Datuk Seri M. Saravanan were conspicuously absent last night, fuelling rumours that the BN component party was considering a complete withdrawal from GE15.

Earlier, reports emerged that Vigneswaran has convened an emergency meeting of the MIC leadership today, ostensibly to discuss the party’s participation in GE15.