GE15 seats: Let's swap Tapah for Pulai, Nur Jazlan tells MIC

 

An Umno leader has challenged MIC to 'sacrifice' by letting Umno contest in the Tapah seat in the 15th general election in return for the former party doing the same for MIC with the Pulai seat.

Johor Umno deputy chief Nur Jazlan Mohamed, in a statement, said that the swap would be a fair trade, given the racial composition of both parliamentary seats.

"MIC has to sacrifice too. There should be a barter trade. Umno and I will sacrifice the Pulai seat, while MIC has to allow Umno to contest in Tapah, which has a huge Malay voter base. Only then would it be fair and in line with the 'BN family' spirit.

"I am confident that if Umno contests in the Tapah seat, BN will win as the voters have confidence in the coalition's capability and excellent track record. At the end of the day, BN will win as they will retain the Tapah seat, while MIC has no guaranteed victory in Pulai," said Nur Jazlan.

For the record, MIC deputy president M Saravanan is the current Tapah MP, while Nur Jazlan held the Pulai seat for three terms before being ousted by Amanah deputy president Salahuddin Ayub in the 2018 general election.

The exchanges began when Nur Jazlan took potshots at MIC and MCA last month, saying BN could not rely on the two parties for non-Malay support and that the two parties were heavily dependent on Umno.

In response, Saravanan called Nur Jazlan delusional and that people like him were the reason why BN lost in the last election.

Nur Jazlan then dared Saravanan to contest in Pulai, but the challenge was recently taken by Johor MIC information chief S Deva.

Johor MIC information chief S Deva

In his statement today, Nur Jazlan lauded Deva's courage in volunteering to contest in Pulai but cautioned that it was a tough seat that needed 'heavyweights', such as the MIC president or his deputy, to even stand a chance of winning.

"MIC can't bring its 'folding chair' culture to Pulai, like how it does elsewhere. Ask for a seat to contest in, lose it, and ask for another chair.

"However, if MIC is serious about contesting in Pulai, they should also speak with MCA first as I have also invited the party's president to contest in the seat. This is because Pulai has 40 percent Chinese voters and only about 12 percent Indian voters," he said.

"If MCA agrees to give way to MIC to contest in the seat, I'm willing to help for the sake of my friends in BN," he added. - Mkini