Youth and Sports Deputy Minister M Saravanan, who was touted as the favourite to win the MIC deputy president post, was defeated by Perak state assembly speaker SK Devamany.

Saravanan, a former vice-president, lost by 17 votes in the party's central committee elections today.

Devamany, who was defeated in the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat during the last general election, garnered 698 votes while Saravanan received 681 votes.

After the results were announced, Saravanan, who is also the MP for Tapah, conceded defeat and congratulated the victor.

"It was a decision made by the delegates and I accept it wholeheartedly. I will continue giving undivided support to the party," he was reported as saying.

As for the three vice-president posts up for grabs, former Kota Raja MP SA Vigneswaran, former Youth chief T Mohan and former MIC treasurer Jaspal Singh made the cut.

Those who won the 23 CWC seats are L Manikam, Daljit Singh, K Thanakaraj, TH Subra, S Kannan, S Ananthan, J Dhina Garan, Velango, R Nadarajah, S Vell Paari, G Raman, M Madumaarimathu, N Muniandy, V Asokan, V Nagaiyah, P Kamalanathan, G Kannan, R Subramaniam, K Raveen Kumar, R Goonasekaran, A Sakthivel, KR Parthiban and M Gnana Segaran.

The polling process involved 1,400 delegates who attended MIC's annual general assembly held at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (Maeps).