MIC deputy president SK Devamany has denied that the party’s headquarters will be managed by two separate administrations.

Describing it as a “misconception”, Devamany said several media organisations had erroneously reported the matter.

“We are the entity that is running the party and the headquarters. We successfully held elections at the branch and divisional levels, as well as the national party election.

“We don’t want this misconception of running (the party headquarters by separate administrations),” he told Malaysiakini yesterday.

Devamany’s clarification comes after representatives from the party’s two rival camps locked horns at a meeting which lasted for more than five hours on Thursday.

One camp is aligned to former MIC president G Palanivel, while the other supports current party president S Subramaniam.

It was reported that the party headquarters will be managed by two separate administrations until the crisis is resolved.

Thursday’s discussion, said Devamany ( photo ), was to “return” the other branches aligned to Palanivel to the party.

“We are giving them a chance to come in today (Thursday) to give their nominations (for branch chiefs),” he said.

The outcome of that meeting also resulted in the need to manage the respective branches aligned to the two feuding leaders.

Based on this understanding, AK Ramalingam, the secretary-general of Palanivel's camp, will manage the 1,800 branches supportive of the former president, whereas A Sakthivel will handle the more than 2,600 branches aligned to Subramaniam.

Palanivel was automatically expelled in June after bringing the party matter to court.

His faction had alleged conspiracy between the pro-Subramaniam camp and the Registry of Societies (ROS) to topple him from being the party top gun, a claim denied by its director-general.