Palanivel shakes up MIC

Party president removes three veterans from the central working committee and appoints new leaders in their place

PETALING JAYA: MIC president G Palanivel has removed three party veterans from the MIC central working committee.

The three are former vice president S Veerasingham, Prof T Marimuthu, the ex-education bureau head and G Rajoo, the former Perak MIC chief.

They would be replaced by Kahang, Johor, state assemblyman R Vidyanathan, S Mahadevan, the Gadek, Malacca state assemblyman and L Manickam, the Jeram Padang, Negeri Sembilan state representative.

Vidyanathan is the Johor exco for unity and human resource while Mahadevan is Malacca exco in charge of company affairs, human resource and NGOs.

Manickam is the Negeri Sembilan exco for human resource, estates and new villages.

Party secretary general A Sakthivel confirmed the removal of the three veteran leaders and the appointment of the new leaders to the central working committee.

Veerasingham, Marimuthu and Rajoo were appointed to the central working committee in 2009 by then president S Samy Vellu.

It is a known fact that these three leaders are hardcore supporters of the former party chief.

“The three new members’ appointment was effective yesterday. The appointment of leaders to the central working committee is at the discretion of the party president.

“The party constitution allows Palanivel to appoint up to nine CWC members. He appointed them because they are new faces and are also equivalent to state ministers,” Sakthivel said.

MIC has 41 CWC members. Only 23 are elected CWC members, nine are appointed and the rest made up of other top office bearers – president, deputy president, three vice presidents, secretary general and treasurer general.