KUALA LUMPUR: Federal Territory MIC today pledged its full support for MIC vice president M Saravanan to contest for the deputy president’s post in the party elections scheduled for early next year. Saravanan is the FT MIC chief.
“We believe Saravanan is the most suitable candidate for the deputy president’s post,” said FT MIC secretary S Rajah in a press conference at MIC headquarters today.
MAY 29- He was responding to a Bernama report yesterday which quoted sources as saying that the present deputy president Dr S Subramaniam would be challenging incumbent president G Palanivel in the party polls.
The Bernama report said that Subramaniam purportedly had the blessings of former president S Samy Vellu to take on Palanivel, and that Saravanan would contest for the deputy’s post.
“If the speculations are true, then we (FT MIC) welcome Saravanan to go for the number two post,” added Rajah.
He said that all 12 divisions in the state have approved a resolution to support Saravanan for the deputy president’s post.
He also said that Saravanan, the deputy youth and sports minister, was a young and vibrant leader who could lead the party and the Indian community to a better future.
However, the FT MIC leadership was still undecided on who to support for the president’s post.
“We have not discussed on who we should support as the president. However, we will give our full support to anyone endorsed by Saravanan,” he said.
FT MIC is one of the biggest state party chapters, comprising of 222 branches which would send 96 delegates to the party annual meeting.
Last week, MIC’s Central Working Committee decided that party polls would only be held in the first quarter of 2014 to allow the party to strengthen its position among Indians.
Palanivel had come under criticism over his leadership, with his detractors blaming his ‘weak’ leadership for the party’s irrelevance among the Indian community.
The party received a major slap in the face when Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak named Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy as a deputy minister to be in charge of a special unit to oversee the Indian affairs.
