Saravanan plays spoiler in Palani’s party

The incumbent MIC vice president maintained strong grip on the post despite facing an onslaught from the president's 'chosen ones'.

MALACCA: Youth and Sports deputy minister M Saravanan has became a stumbling block in party president G Palanivel’s attempt to further strengthen his grip on the party.

Palanivel’s men almost swept clean all three vice president and 23 central working committee (CWC) positions which saw elections at the party’s 67th annual general assembly held yesterday.

Eight candidates fought it out for the VP race while 88 aspirants contested the 23 CWC positions. A total 1,452 divisional delegates were qualified to vote in the elections to pick national office bearers for the 2013/16 term.

The focus of the polls was the vice president race. The candidates were incumbents Saravanan, Perak legislative assembly speaker SK Devamany, former Youth chiefs T Mohan and SA Vigneswaran, MIC treasurer general Jaspal Singh, former vice president S Sothinathan, Johor Baharu division chairman KS Balakrishnan and Bukit Bintang division vice chairman James Selvarajah.

Palanivel, who had earlier promised not to name his preferred list of candidates, made a U-turn just a week after nominations for the elections two weeks ago. A Tamil daily which is his ‘mouthpiece’ these days, splashed photographs of four candidates — Sothinathan, Jaspal, Vigneswaran and Balakrishnan — as the president’s preferred choice of veep candidates, a week before polling.

Palanivel neither denied nor confirmed the report. There were even reports that the president and leaders close to him were sending out SMS text messages to delegates informing them that the four leaders were the chosen ones.

One SMS even said that while Sothinathan, Jaspal and Vigneswaran were the first choice, Balakrishnan was a reserve.

The results of the polls was announced this morning after much ado and recounts.

Sothinathan had topped the list of vice presidents polling 717 votes followed by Saravanan with one vote less and Balakrishnan with 683 votes. Jaspal, who was until last night said to be the third vice president, fell to fourth with 670 votes

The four leaders led the pack, to be trailed by Vigneswaran with 573 votes, Mohan 530 votes, Devamany 332 votes and Selvarajah 52 votes.

“Palanivel’s team did everything they could to ensure Saravanan did not win. He is a threat to the presidency in three years time. They were actually keen on finishing Saravanan off this time around.

“However this had not worked. Instead, Jaspal and Vigneswaran lost. These two leaders are Palanivel’s staunch supporters. Although Palanivel has told the media  that he did not have a team, everyone in MIC knew who he wanted as vice presidents.

“And although Sothinathan was in the president’s list, he can be a double edged sword. Sothinathan has challenged Palanivel before (in the MIC deputy president contest in 2009) and he would do it again if the need arises

“Now Palanivel has to watch out not only for Saravanan but also Sothinathan,” said a party leader, who declined to be named.

All the president’s men
Party observers also felt that Saravanan has come out more matured from this bruising contest.

“He is no more a new kid on the block. He is a two term MP and vice president. He has a strong base in the party. It is difficult to get that many votes and come in second only by one vote. This is despite the MIC headquarters and the president working against Saravanan.

“Palanivel at one stage specifically told delegates from Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Johor to finish off Saravanan, Mohan and Devamany. Delegates from these two states formed the bulk of the total delegates,” said an observer.

In the CWC contest, only four to five leaders who were not Palanivel’s list of preferred candidates made the list. All the others were the president’s preferred men.

However, a point to note is that several state MIC chiefs appointed by the MIC president were shown the exit.

They include R Ganesan, the Perak state chief, N Rawisandiran (the Serdang division chief and close confidant of Palanivel), N Manickam (the Negeri Sembilan chief and state exco) and T Rajagopalu (the former Negeri Sembilan chief).

But all is not lost for these leaders, who had placed their trust on Palanivel. The party constitution allows for the president to appoint up to seven members to the central working committee.

Palanivel is most likely to reward those who stood by him and appoint them into the all power party decision making body.

While Palanivel has used the 2013 MIC polls to strengthen his position, he has also created two potential threats to his position in 2016 via Saravanan and Sothinathan.