Emergency meet of MIC heads on 'family thing', skip Pahang do

MIC is currently holding an emergency central working committee meeting, believed to be over seat allocations for the 15th general election (GE15).

The meeting started around 11am at the MIC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

“It’s a family thing… Every time political parties have issues so we just resolve it in the meeting,” said party president SA Vigneswaran to reporters as he arrived at the meeting this morning.

When asked if he meant this was a family thing with BN, he denied it.

The party was also absent from the unveiling of BN’s candidates for Pahang state seats today.

It was previously reported that MIC is considering not fielding any candidates in the upcoming polls due to their unhappiness with seat allocations.

MIC representatives were also notably absent from the BN candidates’ announcement event at the Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre last night.

Vigneswaran today echoed BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s reason for MIC’s absence last night, saying he had a meeting to attend.

Likewise, Pahang MIC chief V Arumugam told Malaysiakini that the state chapter was also missing from the Pahang BN candidate event to attend today’s emergency meeting.

A separate source told Malaysiakini that Pahang MIC division leaders have also been “advised” to skip the state BN event until the central working committee meeting is over.

MIC sidelined?

At the BN announcement last night, “friends” of the coalition were finally given seats to contest.

With this marks the electoral debut of Makkal Sakti, Indian Progressive Front (IPF), Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma), and Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) under the BN flag.

It is believed that the inclusion of these “friends” in BN’s list of candidates raised the ire of MIC, which was purportedly already upset about having to give up some seats to Umno.

Umno took Sungai Buloh and Kapar from MIC in exchange for Kuala Langat.

Umno also kept the Cameron Highlands seat which was formerly traditionally contested by MIC until the 2019 by-election won by BN candidate and Umno member Ramli Md Nor.

MIC was also given the Padang Serai seat from MCA.

Meanwhile, in Pahang, MIC was only allocated one state seat - Sabai.

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