PKR’s Vasanthakumar for Tapah?

The former Hindraf activist is the latest Pakatan candidate being considered to take on MIC's M Saravanan for the parliamentary seat.

PETALING JAYA: Over the last four months, hardcore opposition supporters in Tapah have been running like headless chickens. They have been without a general to lead them in the fight for the rural parliamentary constituency, which has approximately 38,000 voters.

MIC vice-president M Saravanan, who is also Federal Territories and Urban Well-being deputy minister, won in 2008, beating a PKR candidate by a 3,000 vote majority.

Tapah is relatively a small constituency in terms of registered voters. It has about 47% Malays, 32% Chinese while Indians and Orang Asli make up 20% and 1% respectively.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been experimenting with candidates, and the latest is former Hindraf leader K Vasanthakumar, at one point labeled a government stooge.

The search for a credible candidate, the delay in announcing a name has all resulted in uncertainty among the opposition in this seat, situated in the foothills of Cameron Highlands.

Vasanthakumar has been “moving” on the ground over the last three weeks and has even set up an election operations centre in Tapah.

But with just four days to go before the nominations for the country’s 13th general election, will Anwar opt for another candidate to replace Vasanthakumar?

Initially Anwar dispatched businessman K Ramachandran to start the groundwork in Tapah, giving rise to speculation that is to be the candidate to take on ‘heavyweight’ Saravanan.

No newcomer to politics

The “proposed” candidate even organised a huge Ponggal festival in the constituency in an effort to attract Indian voters, who are crucial if one wants to win Tapah.

A month later, came S Shanmugan from Setiawan. He is also PKR supreme council member.

Shanmugam organised several temple programmes and even offered goats for sacrificial rites at temple festivals. There was talk that he would be the one replacing Ramachandran.

While both these candidates have “disappeared”, now its Vasanthakumar’s turn to test the ground.

He was among the Hindraf 5 who were jailed under the now repealed Internal Security Act for organising the mammoth Hindraf rally in 2007.

The others were M Manoharan, S Ganapathi Rao, P Uthayakumar and R Gengatharan.

While Vasanthakumar is with PKR, Manoharan, Kenghadharan and Ganapathi Rao are with DAP. Uthayakumar started his own party called the Human Rights Party of Malaysia (HRP).

Political observers feel that since Vasanthakumar is no newcomer to politics, he could give Saravanan, who has been hailed as the future MIC president, a run for his money.

Saravanan beat PKR’s Tan Seng Toh in the 2008 election and will contest the seat for a second term.

Analysts say Vasanthakumar is a strong candidate. His credentials as a Hindraf leader would be able to bring in the Indian votes, they claimed.

The big question now is: Will Anwar stay true to Vasanthakumar or will he change the Tapah candidate again?