MIC president S Samy Vellu has dismissed allegations that the Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituents are not keen on an MIC candidate to contest in the by-election.

NONE Samy Vellu said he believed the situation in the constituency had changed since the 2008 general election.

"If we look at the preference of the constituents, there is nowhere an Indian can contest in this country. Indians have no majority at all in any constituency to contest. They can just remain as voters and this will lead to a lot of other problems.

"We are getting out of the problems now and I hope people will try to forget what had happened in the past. Don't try to remind them... it's not good," he told reporters after officially opening a new building of the Jalan Tepi Sungai Tamil school, near Klang, today.

Samy Vellu was earlier asked to comment on talks that the Hulu Selangor constituents prefer an Umno candidate as opposed to an MIC candidate to contest in the by-election.

The former works minister had proposed MIC deputy president G Palanivel to represent the BN in contesting the seat.

azlan The Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat fell vacant following the death of its incumbent Zainal Abidin Ahmad, 71, of brain cancer last Thursday.

He won the seat by defeating Palanivel by a majority of 198 votes in the 2008 general election. Palanivel was Hulu Selangor MP since 1990 before he lost the seat in 2008.

Asked whether he had other candidates in mind other than Palanivel to contest in the by-election, Samy Vellu jokingly said:

"We can look for an 18 or a 19-year-old boy to contest."

Samy Vellu also said that MIC's proposal for Palanivel to contest the seat was done in accordance with the party hierarchy.

"The party hierarchy must be respected or otherwise people would think that I don't respect the majority's decision.

"Palanivel is party deputy president today due to the decision made by the majority."

Samy Vellu said Palanivel would stand a chance of wresting back the Hulu Selangor seat as he was getting overhelming support from the constituency's MIC division and ordinary Umno branch leaders.

Samy submits name to PM

He told journalists at another function that he had already submitted the name of the candidate to Prime Minister Najib Razak in Parliament today.

"I submitted the name of the candidate chosen by MIC. He (PM) received the name and will inform me of his decision after studying the proposal," he said.

He however added that while it was the prerogative of BN component party presidents to suggest the name of a candidate, the final decision would be made by the prime minister.

"We discussed matters pertaining to candidates, BN election machinery and steps needed to unite the people," he said.

- Bernama