After Gerakan’s exit, MIC sets sights on Teluk Intan seat

 

MIC president S A Vigneswaran said the party had also asked to contest other seats, but would not name them.

PETALING JAYA: MIC is eyeing the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat in Perak for the coming general election, to fill the vacancy left behind by Gerakan which used to contest the seat while the party was in Barisan Nasional (BN).

MIC president S A Vigneswaran said an application has also been sent to BN for other seats, though he refused to reveal which seats these were.

“We don’t want to reveal the other seats as we want to avoid a messy situation.

“However, as for Teluk Intan, MIC is set on it as there is an extra seat,” Berita Harian quoted him as saying.

Since 1986, Gerakan has been contesting the Teluk Intan seat under BN’s ticket. In GE14, Gerakan’s Mah Siew Keong lost against DAP’s Nga Kor Ming who contested for Pakatan Harapan.

Gerakan, however, joined Perikatan Nasional in February last year.

Vigneswaran said that his party will continue to prioritise BN as a coalition, adding that it had even given up its traditional Cameron Highlands seat to Umno. He said he hoped that sacrifice was not in vain.

He said MIC had asked to be allowed to contest “winnable seats” so that its elected representatives could help resolve problems of the Indian community.

“If MIC wins a state seat, it means we can sit as an exco. We do not expect Umno to be the only party that works and wins elections. We want to help Umno, BN, and we want to be frontliners in a battle,” he said in Ipoh, Bernama reported.

In the 2018 general election, MIC won two of nine parliamentary and three of 18 state seats it contested. - FMT