Tussle for Hutan Melintang

The Perak state leadership wants to inject some new blood for the seat while MIC is hell bent on giving it to a party veteran.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Perak Barisan Nasional leadership and the MIC are at loggerheads over the candidate for the Hutan Melintang state seat in Perak for the upcoming general election.

Perak BN chief and Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir is said to be in favour of new blood to contest while MIC president G Palanivel is adamant that the seat should be given to the state assembly speaker R Ganesan, who was dropped as MIC candidate in the last elections.

A party source said Palanivel did not want to give in to the request of the state BN leaders for the party to nominate a fresh candidate to contest the seat.

“Palanivel is stubborn over this seat. And his stubbornness could very well ruin MIC’s chances of winning back the seat the in coming general election,” said the source.

Hutan Melintang, near Teluk Intan, has about 21,000 registered voters. In the 2008 general election, PKR’s S Kesavan defeated S Thangasvari of the MIC by a 1,721 vote majority.

“If Ganesan is chosen as the MIC candidate, then we would not be surprised if the party repeats its dismal performance in the seat in the general election,” said the source.

He said MIC should “listen” to the Menteri Besar and look at new, young candidates instead of focusing on veterans, who are on their way out of active politics.

“Unlike previous general elections, the upcoming one would be the most difficult in the history of Perak for the BN. It is important that BN wins seats to retain power of the state. We need the numbers to take control of the state,” he added.

Weakness of the Perak MIC

Ganesan was a two term Sungkai (Perak) state assemblyman before he was sidelined by former MIC president S Samy Vellu in the 2008 general election.

He was appointed state assembly speaker, after three Pakatan Rakyat state assemblymen quit the party to become pro BN independents. The decision by the three to quit Pakatan resulted in BN taking over the administration of the state in 2009.

Ganesan, said the source, carried “some excess baggage” which could be used against the BN in the run-up to the election.

In December last year two DAP assemblymen, V Sivakumar (Tronoh) and A Sivasubramaniam (Buntong), lodged police report after receiving an envelope each containing a two-page printout and a DVD, believed to be pornographic.

Speculation is that the video was of Ganesan being allegedly involved sex scandal in Thailand. The MIC man has on numerous occasion denied that he was involved in any such scandals.

On another matter, the MIC source also revealed that party members were in the dark on the number of state seats to be contested by the MIC in Perak.

“There is speculation that the party will give up two of its four state seats in Perak in exchange for two senators posts. The election is less than six weeks. But, party members are still unsure of the total number of state seats the party would contest.

“If the speculation is true then, it shows the weakness of the Perak MIC. The party is willing to surrender seats for safe posts like a senatorship,” he added. The state MIC is headed by Palanivel too.

At the last election, MIC lost all four state seats – Hutan Melintang, Behrang, Pasir Panjang and Sungkai – it contested in Perak.