KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — A portion of MIC members are planning on boycotting Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidates for the upcoming six state elections, claiming they were left out of seat discussions.

Unnamed party insiders told news portal The Malaysian Insight that they are not willing to support candidates contesting under the PH banner, even though their Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is now part of the federal “unity government”.

“We can see after the formation of the unity government, those in PH are not respecting MIC, and even MCA. We were not called for proper discussions even for state election seat talks.

“When all this has happened, why should we back them (PH) for the elections? Better not,” an unnamed Selangor MIC leader was quoted as saying in the news report published today.

“The grassroots members are unhappy to be working with PH members and voting for their candidates,” another unnamed MIC grassroots member told the news portal. Former enemies turned recent allies, PH and BN have decided that the formula they would use for the upcoming six state elections was for their component parties to defend their incumbent seats, which leaves BN parties like MIC and MCA, with few seats, out in the cold.

The news portal also reported MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran saying he feared his party will be totally sidelined in the next general election, leaving it with only one federal seat to defend in GE16.

According to the news report, Vigneswaran claimed that MCA and MIC were not prioritised at all during seat discussions even by Umno, leading them to question their future in BN, especially under their pact with PH.

The article quoted another unnamed source saying that the party was mulling joining Perikatan Nasional after the state elections now that the federal Opposition coalition had launched a campaign to boost support from non-Malays, especially the ethnic Indian community.

Selangor, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu will be heading to the polls on August 12.

Nomination Day is tomorrow while the Election Commission has set early voting for August 8.