Incumbent MIC vice-president KS Nijhar today slammed his opponents for asking party delegates to reject him because he is not Tamil.

The veteran politician - who is on party president S Samy Vellu's list of preferred candidates in this Saturday's polls - described it as a desperate tactic.

"The majority of the delegates are aware that such tactics have been used and they have rejected them in the past. To me, such tactics are the tactics of people who are desperate. If a man is not desperate, he will design a strategy to show what he has done and what he can do.

"You can't stop a desperate man who is sinking from using desperate measures. So let them use them and let the delegates decide on the basis of track record and future performance," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Nijhar, 70, is of northern Indian descent.

The race for the posts of vice-president sees a tussle among seven aspirants - incumbents S Veerasingam and Nijhar, party secretary-general S Sothinathan, Kuala Lumpur MIC chief VKK Teagarajan, party veteran M. Muthupalaniappan, former Sri Rusa state assemblyman E Yohevel and newcomer P Thiagarasan, better known as Alex Thiagarasan.

Apart from Nijhar, Veerasingam and Sothinathan are also the president's preferred candidates.

Weakest link

Meanwhile, Nijhar said he always regarded himself as the "weakest" link among the vice-presidential trio because "I am not a Tamil candidate".

"Ninety-eight percent of the delegates are of south Indian origin (who are normally Tamils). By virtue of this, I am regarded as a weak candidate and this time they consider me weak as the other two (Veerasingam and Sothinathan) are both deputy ministers and I am only a backbencher.

"So, these are the two reasons but my main point to the delegates is to look at the track record of my performance. I also have a plan for the future which is in my manifesto," he added.

He said his opponents had used ethnicity against him in past elections but the argument had never held water with the delegates.

"They (the delegates) know I was with the MIC when it was weak, when it had very few people to help and grow, both in the field of education and economics. They know I am reliable. I believe they will give me their full support," said Nijhar, an economist by profession.

Nijhar entered politics in the early 1970s. He was appointed MIC treasurer-general in 1981 and a senator in 1985. He held the senatorship for the maximum two terms.

He became member of the MIC Central Working Committee in 1994 and was appointed party secretary-general in 1997.

Nijhar was chosen as the Barisan Nasional candidate to contest the Subang parliamentary seat in the 1999 general election. In 2000, he won one of the three posts of MIC vice-president. He retained his post of vice-president unopposed at the last MIC polls, in 2003.