A faction of Chinese-based party MCA is staging what it calls "the biggest dinner in the country's political history" in a show of might after months of uneasy truce between opposing camps.

The dinner planned for tomorrow for 26,000 people in Negeri Sembilan is organised by the Rasah division to show the "grassroots' political frustration against the party's dictatorial leadership", officials say.

The division is aligned to the so-called "Team B" faction led by MCA deputy president Lim Ah Lek, which is mounting a challenge to the "Team A" camp led by party president and Transport Minister Dr Ling Liong Sik.

The two rival camps have been embroiled in a bitter feud since last year, forcing Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to intervene in April to help mend the split in the 52-year-old MCA, the second largest in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition of racially-based parties.

Chinese votes, which helped BN to victory in 1999 polls after it lost Malay support to the opposition, remain a crucial factor in the next elections amid a split in the Malay heartland, analysts say.

But MCA officials said the party's leadership battle was unlikely to affect Chinese support for the ruling coalition.