Conspiracy to oust Karpal?

Ringleaders are upset with Karpal’s insistence on one man-one seat electoral formula as part of party strategy to face the next GE, claims a former DAP man.

GEORGE TOWN: Is there a grand design – purportedly mooted by the Lim Dynasty faction – to oust DAP national chairman Karpal Singh in the party national election next month?

According to former DAP grassroots leader Tan Tuan Tat, such a plan is already allegedly in place to vote Karpal out from the central executive committee (CEC).

Tan, a former Selangor DAP publicity secretary, said the plan was hatched to protect the self-interest of a few.

“The warlords don’t want the Singh to be their King. They feel Karpal is against their selfish interests,” the former DAP’s Taman Seri Sungai Pelek branch chairman told FMT here.

These ringleaders, he said, were extremely upset with Karpal’s insistence on one man-one seat electoral formula as part of party strategy to face the next general election.

Karpal’s single seat proposal for a party candidate to contest only either a federal or a state seat, albeit some exemptions, has been overwhelmingly popular among party grassroots and lay public.

But Tan said some of the party’s current nine double-seat holders from the Lim Dynasty were unhappy with Karpal’s initiative to streamline their multiple positions and multiple perks.

He alleged that the warlords were also unhappy with Karpal outspoken criticisms against PAS Islamic state and PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim’s unsuccessful Sept 16 Putrajaya coup in 2008.

A MP for seven terms, veteran Karpal joined DAP in 1970 and has been party supremo since Sept 4, 2004.

Tan alleged that the ringleaders’ ultimate goal is to maintain the dominance of Lim Dynasty in the party after the internal polls to be held during the national party convention on Dec 15 – 16 in Penang.

Lim Dynasty is a popular political idiom expressed by DAP grassroots to taunt the internal faction led by party’s national advisor and Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang and his son and secretary general Guan Eng, who is also the Penang Chief Minister.

Karpal could not be contacted for comment. However sources close to him said that the veteran politician was confident party delegates would back him in the party polls.