Perak agreed to accommodate Barisan Nasional (BN) component party PPP for the coming general election to prevent the party from leaving the ruling front, said Menteri Besar Tajol Rosli Ghazali today.

He said other states had spurned the party because it was perceived to be weak as compared to the past when it was in the opposition.

Recalling its former glory, Tajol Rosli said the party had nearly formed the Perak state government after the 1969 general election and was subsequently invited to join BN.

"Now it is no longer strong and this does not mean we can ignore or chase them away. Before they leave the BN it is better to give them seats.

"It does not mean because they are weak now, they will be always so," he was quoted as saying in a Bernama report.

Two seats

PPP has been allocated two seats for the coming polls. Its president M Kayveas will contest in the Taiping parliamentary seat while Perak PPP chairperson Lee Heng will be vying for the Pasir Bedamar seat.

The Taiping seat was formerly a Gerakan stronghold while the Pasir Bedamar incumbent is DAP's Seah Leong Peng.

Initially, Kayveas was slated for the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat - controlled by Umno - but this was met with stiff resistence from the Umno division there.

Later, the division backed down and the BN leadership decided to do a swap, by giving Bukit Gantang to Gerakan and Taiping to the PPP president.

However, the Umno division stressed that it wanted the seat back for the next polls and warned that it would strongly protest any attempts to do otherwise.

Gerakan 'forced'

Meanwhile, Tajol also expressed his gratitude to Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik for willing to forego a traditional seat to PPP albeit being forced to do so by BN chairperson Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"Dr Lim initially was not willing but was forced to agree by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for the good of the BN.

"Nevertheless the prime minister and I agreed that this is only for one term after which it will revert to Gerakan and Bukit Gantang (allocated to Gerakan) will return to Umno. We will find another seat for PPP," he said.

On the move by DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang to contest for the Ipoh Timor parliamentary seat, Tajol Rosli said he would strive to ensure that the Kinta Valley did not become a DAP stronghold.

He said many development programmes were in the pipeline for the Kinta Valley and if the DAP were to win, all this could not be implemented.