MIC top two face big battles

The MIC president and his deputy are facing massive fights at their respective parliamentary seats, which may see a change of leadership in the party after the polls.

PETALING JAYA: MIC president G Palanivel and his deputy Dr S Subramaniam are facing massive challenges in the Cameron Highlands and Segamat parliamentary seats respectively, so much so that party observers feel that the party might even undergo a leadership change after the general election.

Sources reveal that the 64-year-old Palanivel, contesting the Cameron Highlands seat, is facing tough challenge from former Teluk Intan MP and DAP candidate, M Manogaran, 53. The two are joined by three independents – T Alagu, a 51-year-old businessman from Raub, Pahang; lawyer NP Kisho Kumar; and Parti Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia vice-president Mohd Shokri Mahmood.

The seat, which has about 55,000 voters, was won by MIC vice-president SK Devamany in the last election with a 3,000-vote majority. Devamany is now contesting the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat.

At the 2008 general election, Palanivel lost the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat with a mere 198- majority vote. The seat saw a by-election following the death of the incumbent and went back to the Barisan Nasional. In the by-election, Palanivel was regarded as a non-winnable candidate and replaced by P Kamalanathan, the party’s central working committee member.

Sources reveal result of the tussle in Cameron Highlands would be decided by Orang Asli voters as other races are evenly divided. They confirm that it will not be easy for Palanivel to win the seat.

It must be noted that Palanivel was appointed a senator before he was given the ministerial position, after he took over as MIC chief in 2010.

While Palanivel, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, is having his hands full in Cameron Highlands, his deputy Subramaniam is facing an even bigger battle in Segamat, Johor, where he is facing former MCA vice-president Chua Jui Meng, who is now the PKR state chief.

With the Chinese vote swing towards the opposition in the southern state gathering steam, Subramaniam, the Human Resources Minister, has a huge task of retaining the seat, say sources.

Subramaniam defeated a DAP candidate with a 2,971-vote majority in the 2008 general election. The seat has 40.9% Malays, 47.68% Chinese, 11.26% Indians and 0.07% from other races.

“This seat is difficult with the current Chinese sentiment in Johor. There might be an upset here. If he loses, the question would be what will happen to his party post,” a party insider said.

Mammoth challenges

While the MIC top two are facing mammoth challenges in their respective seats, the party’s two vice-president seem to be coasting to victory, come Sunday when 13.3 million registered voters will cast their ballots in the country’s 13th general election.

MIC is allotted nine parliamentary and 18 state seats to contest under the Barisan Nasional banner in this election. The party swapped a state seat for a senator’s post.

In Tapah, MIC vice-president M Saravanan is facing a four-cornered fight from Independent candidate Ridzuan Bani, PKR’s K Vasantha Kumar and Berjasa’s Shaharuzzaman Bistamam, for the seat, which has 45,592 voters.

Saravanan won the seat with a 2,000-vote majority in the last election.

The 45-year-old budding leader, sources say, is facing a fight from Vasantha Kumar and Radzuan Bani.

“But both of them are from PKR. Radzuan is a Tapah PKR office-bearer. They will only break the opposition votes and allow Saravanan to walk to victory,” said an opposition party worker in Tapah.

A victory in Tapah would propel Saravanan’s name as MIC presidential material. The young leader has positioned himself as the front-runner for the MIC top post after successfully undertaking several initiatives for the Indian community.

The success of turning Brickfields into Kuala Lumpur’s Little India, minimising housing woes among the poor in the federal capital, the staging of the national level Ponggal festival which attracted 80,000 Indians to Dataran Merdeka, have all worked in favour of Saravanan, known as Sara in the party circles.

Young leaders

The Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Deputy Minister’s strength in Tamil and Hindu culture would be his advantage.

If the top two party leaders fail to win their respective seats, then it would be Saravanan and Devamany filling the two ministerial positions, given to MIC, provided BN retains the federal government after the polls.

This could happen since Palanivel has resigned as a senator to contest this election. This means he has already exhausted one term of the two-term senatorship allowed. Each senatorship term is three years.

Devamany, on the other hand, looks set to win the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in Perak. Here, he is facing Dr Michael Jeyakumar from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and Independent candidate S Nagalingam.

In the last election Jeyakumar created a major upset when he ousted the then MIC supremo S Samy Vellu by a 1,821-vote majority, in the seat which has about 50,000 registered voters.

Devamany can bank on the 31% Malay and 23% Indian voters in the constituency. The constituency is also made up of 41% Chinese and 5% others, mainly Orang Asli.

He is also being backed by Samy Vellu, who still commands some support in the seat.

If the two vice-presidents win theirs respective seats and the top two in the party lose, then MIC is looking at a new era where young and energetic leaders take over to revive the now lethargic and mundane MIC

Sources in the party reveal that plans are already underway to postpone the party election, which was supposed to be held in the third quarter of the year.

“Palanivel wants the party election next year… but everything hinges on the outcome of the general election,” said a source.