MIC: 13 new faces for state seats, 2 for parliament

Andrew Ong | Feb 20, 08 4:15pm

MIC will field 13 new faces for the 19 state seats the party controls while changes have been made to two of the nine parliamentary seats. Party president S Samy Vellu announced today that veteran vice-president KS Nijhar has been dropped from the line-up and will be replaced by S Murugesan for the Subang parliament seat. Meanwhile, MIC information chief M Saravanan will contest in the Tapah parliamentary seat while incumbent S Veerasingam, who is also a vice-president, will be moved to the Sungkai state seat. However, former deputy president S Subramaniam, who is widely considered Samy's key rival, is not on the party's candidates list. He was dropped in the 1999 elections but there were rumours of a comeback. At a press conference at the Works Ministry in Kuala Lumpur, Samy Vellu said the party, which won all nine parliament and 19 state seats during the 2004 general election, would have to work "very hard" to repeat a clean sweep. "We are anticipating a 100 percent victory, although we know this is not going to be easy," he said to a question on the apparent wavering support from the Indian community. Samy Vellu said the party had identified three problematic state seats which are Lunas in Kedah, Prai and Bagan Dalam in Penang. As for the parliamentary seats, Samy Vellu is confident that the party will retain all of them. Three women candidates To a question, Samy Vellu expressed confidence that the Indian community realises that MIC was the only party representing them in the government. "People who instigate them to go against us are people who cannot represent them in the government," he said, in reference to the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) movement. On why the party is only fielding three women candidates, Samy Vellu replied: "We would like to field more candidates but there are not enough seats". A new rose among the thorns this time around is S Thangasvari who will be contesting in the Hutan Melintang state seat. MIC would be fielding only fresh faces in four states - Kedah, Malacca, Perak and Johor - while dropping notable figures such as Perak MIC chief G Rajoo and Johor MIC chief KS Balakrishnan. The new faces for state seats are S Krishnan (Bukit Selambau), S Ananthan (Lunas), L Krishnan (Perai), S Thangesvari (Hutan Melintang), Dr S Vasan (Pasir Panjang), Veerasingam (Sungkai), M Ramasamy (Behrang), T Mohan (Batu Caves), V Mogan (Jeram Padang), R Perumal (Asahan), M Munusamy (Permas), N Soorianarayanan (Tenggaroh) and R Vidyananthan (Kahang). The six who would be defending their state seats are PK Subbaiyah (Bagan Dalam), M Davendran (Sabai), T Rajagopalu (Port Dickson), K Parthiban (Bukit Melawati), A Kamala Ganapathy (Seri Andalas) and M Asojan (Gambir) Homecoming for Veerasingam On the dropping of two MIC vice-presidents as candidates for parliament seats, Samy Vellu said that candidacy was not based on positions held in the party. "We have to change seats from time to time," he said, adding that Veerasingam was moved to Sungkai in order to "take care of the state". Speaking to reporters later, Veerasingam appeared upbeat about the latest development and looked forward to contesting in Sungkai, which he has won twice before in 1990 and 1995. "Its not going to be a problem since I have a track record there and I know the people in the area," said Veerasingam, who was born and bred in Kampar, which is near Sungkai. The veteran politician added that he would work together with Perak MIC chief G Rajoo to ensure MIC's victory in the state. Veerasingam, a former deputy minister, is likely to face DAP central committee member A Sivanesan who has been actively campaigning for Hindraf and is a known figure amongst the Indian community.