SHAH ALAM, May 6 – The results of the 13th General Election (GE13), especially for MIC, showed no indication that the people have started to accept the party in Selangor.
The only consolation was retaining the Hulu Selangor Parliamentary seat that was won by P. Kamalanathan during a by-election in 2010 after the death of Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad from PKR who had won the seat after beating Datuk Seri G. Palanivel in the 2008 General Election.
This time around Kamalanathan who had beaten Datuk Zaid Ibrahim from PKR in the 2010 by-election, defended his seat with a 3,414-vote majority after being involved in a four-cornered fight.
Before 2008, the Hulu Selangor Parliamentary constituency was regarded as BN’s stronghold as Palanivel had won it in four consecutive general election from (1990, 1995, 1999, 2004).
The MIC which fielded nine candidates for Parliamentary seats throughout the country, named four candidates for the Kota Raja, Kapar, Subang and Hulu Selangor Parliamentary seats.
MIC secretary-general Datuk S. Murugesan who headed the cast in Selangor, lost in Kota Raja to PAS candidate Siti Mariah Mahmud who won by a 29,395-vote majority.
It was Murugesan’s second consecutive defeat in a GE since he had also lost in the race for the Subang Parliament seat in 2008. In Kapar, the MIC fielded a first-timer in young businessman A. Sakthivel for one of the biggest constituencies in the country which has 144,159 registered voters.
The gamble however, failed when Sakthivel, regarded as a strong ally of MIC President Datuk Seri G. Palanivel, lost to PKR’s G. Manivannan by a 23,790-vote majority in a six-cornered fight.
In Subang, Sri Murugan Centre academician turned politician, A. Prakash Rao who contested in the former MIC stronghold (prior to 2008), faced PKR heavyweight R. Sivarasa and lost by a 26,719-vote majority.
In the contest for state seats, MIC Youth Chief T. Mohan who contested in Seri Andalas, faced another PKR heavyweight in Dr Xavier Jayakumar who emerged victorious with a 15,633-vote majority.
For Mohan, it was his second consecutive defeat in a GE since he had also lost the Batu Caves seat in 2008. Another state seat that involved a MIC candidate was in Ijok where former giant-killer K. Parthiban who beat PKR’s current Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim in a 2007 by-election, lost to PKR’s Dr Idris Ahmad by a 739-vote deficit.
In Batu Caves, Palanivel’s gamble to field another newcomer in N. Rawisandran, also failed miserably when the latter lost to PKR’s Amirudin Shari by 3,261 votes. The results for MIC showed that the party would need to double or even triple its efforts to reach out to the voters, especially in Selangor.
BERNAMA
