'Orphans to refugees' - MIC appoints leaders in GE15 seats it contested

MIC president SA Vigneswaran announced that he would appoint coordinators in all the parliamentary seats traditionally contested by the BN component party.

The announcement made at the Penang MIC annual general meeting yesterday seemingly contradicted Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s earlier statement that BN would cooperate with Pakatan Harapan in the 16th general election and not contest parliamentary seats won by the ruling coalition.

“MIC will appoint coordinators in all parliamentary seats contested in GE15. We will also appoint coordinators in parliamentary seats that have a high percentage of Indian voters.

“First, we were made orphans and now we can call ourselves refugees,” said Vickneswaran (above) in front of more than 400 MIC representatives, yesterday afternoon.

It is understood that the party chief’s speech was a veiled reference to Zahid who was previously accused of taking important decisions on behalf of BN without consulting partners MIC and MCA.

In GE15 held in Nov 2022, MIC contested in 10 parliamentary seats and won only in Tapah.

It lost to Harapan in Sungai Siput, Teluk Intan, Port Dickson, Batu, Segamat, and Kota Raja.

MIC was also defeated by Perikatan Nasional candidates in the Hulu Selangor and Kuala Langat seats.

Recently, Vigneswaran said MIC needed to make a decision regarding its position in BN first before discussing the issue of seat distribution for the next national polls.

Vigneswaran’s statement raised questions over whether MIC might leave BN after being in the coalition and previously the Alliance for the past 72 years.

On July 19, a Malaysiakini report quoted a MIC source as saying that it is not impossible for the party to leave BN due to the seat distribution factor and the party feeling marginalised in the government.

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