PPP president M Kayveas today said he is confident he will be allowed to contest the Taiping parliamentary seat in the coming general election despite a news report that the seat will be given back to Gerakan.

He is unaware of any plans by the Perak Barisan Nasional (BN) to return the seat to Gerakan.

Kayveas said he was surprised by the news report today that the Taiping seat will be handed back to Gerakan while Umno will get back its Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat.

"This is news to me," he said when contacted in Shanghai for comment.

"So far no seat discussions nor meetings have been conducted at BN level. We have been told that a management meeting will be called by the BN to discuss this matter. So I don't know how this report came about."

The report in the News Straits Times quoted sources as saying that Perak Menteri Besar and state BN chairperson Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali had agreed to return the seats to Umno and Gerakan respectively.

The sources added that Kayveas would be given another safe seat by Umno, not necessarily in Perak.

Holding to PM's promise

In the last general election, Kayveas was given the Taiping 'safe seat' while Gerakan was moved to stand in Umno stronghold Bukit Gantang as a compromise to accommodate PPP.

This time, however, both Gerakan and Umno have been asking for the return of their respective seats, leaving Kayveas in the lurch.

The PPP president is adamant that he should be allowed to contest in Taiping, stating that his party has a strong tradition in the state and that he had done much in the constituency since his victory in 2004.

His strong stand on this matter has caused him to cross swords with state Umno and Gerakan leaders. Both parties claim that the arrangement to give the seat to Kayveas was only for one term.

Kayveas, however, said Prime Minister and BN chairperson Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has assured him that he can defend his seat.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed. We have confidence in the PM's words," he said.

"As long as an alternative seat is not determined nor agreed upon, PPP have not lost Taiping," he added.

In 2004, Kayveas obtained 20,129 votes, defeating DAP's Ong Chee Keng, who had 17,957 votes, and PKR's P Annah Dorai, who received 4,371 votes.

PPP was given two seats, both in Perak - the Taiping parliamentary seat and the Pasir Bedamar state seat. The party lost the state seat to DAP.

Rejected in Malacca

PPP had a strong grip in Perak in the 1960s when it controlled four parliamentary seats, 12 state assembly seats, 79 local council seats and the post of the Datuk Bandar of Ipoh.

Its power dwindled over the years as a result of infighting and lack of direction, resulting in the party losing its traditional seats, until Kayveas assumed leadership in 1993 and steered it to stability.

For the next election, Kayveas is urging the BN to allocate more seats for PPP. This, however, has not been well received by several Umno leaders.

Last month, Umno vice-president and Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam dismissed any chance of PPP getting seats in that state and told PPP to leave BN if it was unhappy.

PPP has also engaged in a verbal spat with MIC, but both parties have been ordered to stop arguing in public.