Confident that it has regained popular support from traditional strongholds in rural constituencies after the double win in Kerdau and Merlimau, the BN now seeks to spread its wings to the urban constituencies which are mostly the domain of Pakatan.

“We may be a little bit of conservative... But we have to think what’s next. The result is encouraging, but we will have to continue our work and work even harder.

NONE “When we come to a general election, we must aim to win all 222 seats. if we are not doing well in urban areas, then we must strengthen our performance.  At the same time, we must keep our support base in rural areas,” MCA vice-president Wee Ka Siong ( right ) told reporters in Parliament today.

However he refused to say that this may spell the end of Pakatan, urging caution instead.

“Don’t underestimate the opponent, this loss doesn’t mean they will not come back. We must make sure we are go not get overconfident and underestimate our opponent.”

Pakatan leaders however are not that worried about their losses in the two concurrent by-election as those were in BN strongholds.

“We should only worry if we lose seats in our own fortress, where we are incumbent. Like in Hulu Selangor or in Kuala Terengganu. But to lose seats in their fortress, I think it is a common phenomenon,” said PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.

His view is supported by his counterpart in PAS, Salahuddin Ayub, who repeated the mantra that such losses are not as impactful to Pakatan, being as they were in BN strongholds.

Mahfuz: They’re just warm-ups

PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar went as far as calling the twin by-elections an exercise to test Pakatan’s election machineries and nothing more.

“Those are just warm-ups,” he sniped.

NONE PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar ( left ) however has a different take on things, seeing the defeats as a challenge for Pakatan to be more sophisticated and innovative in its strategies.

She also countered suppositions that the opposition cannot make its way into rural seats as some say is proven by the recent loss in Kerdau and Merlimau.

“I disagree because in the areas that PKR covered (in the Kerdau by-election), Felda Jengka 25, 22, we actually had a slight increase of votes, from the Felda heartland,” she argued.

She even suggested that Pakatan is ready to take a leap of faith into rural seats and try to spread its wings from its traditional urban seats.

“It means if we are able to work hard and communicate our message and readiness to implement political transformation in these areas, even the Malay heartland, we can do it. It might be studied in detail but it is something that is seriously in need of vindicating that it can be done,” she stressed.

Both the opposition and the BN now seems to be criss-crossing into each other’s territory in order to try and poach support from their respective opponent’s strongholds.