July 18 – Sudden change of events in MIC has created lot of excitement and debates among the party’s hierarchy.
Yesterday’s appointments by MIC President G.Palanivel, clearly indicates that a presidential fight is brewing in the party and that the party president is not taking his chances.
Palanivel has roped-in his one-time political foe and former Vice-President S.Sothinathan to shore up his support base in the party. Only about two months ago Sothinathan was by-passed for the Teluk Kemang parliament seat and he was naturally upset with Palanivel for ignoring him.
Sothi’s relevance
However, Sothi found his relevance in the party once again after GE-13, when 2013 was declared as the party’s election year. Recently, the Tamil media even speculated that Sothi is contemplating contesting for party presidency.
Since Saravanan has declared that he is going for party’s Deputy Presidency, Palanivel was forced to identify a candidate to take on Saravanan, who is now leading a campaign to oust Palanivel.
Sothi, became the natural choice for Palanivel! Sothi proved his political mettle in 2009 party elections by polling a respectable 280 votes against Palanivel and Tan Sri Subramaniam in the Deputy Presidential election.
Going by the vote calculation of 2009 party election, Sothi would need only another 500 votes (out of 1,500 total votes) to clinch Deputy Presidency and Palanivel hopes to achieve that by throwing his support behind Sothi.
But there is a catch!
The presidential election takes place first and therefore Sothi will have to campaign on the ground against Dr Subramaniam and Saravanan to show that Palanivel is a better president to lead the party.
If Dr Subramaniam contests and wins the race for presidency then it would be a foregone conclusion that Saravanan will be the next Deputy President. Sothi may then find it hard to challenge Saravanan for Deputy Presidency as Dr Subramaniam has forged a strong political alliance with Saravanan.
Sothi may then opt to go for Vice-presidency, a post he once held, to re-position himself in the party.
If Palani wins, Sothi will take on Saravanan!
However, if Palanivel retains his presidency against a challenge from Dr Subramaniam, then Sothi would become Palanivel’s running mate to take on Saravanan for Deputy Presidency. Then, Saravanan may face an uphill task against Sothi since Palanivel will throw his support behind Sothi.
It must also be remembered that Dr Subramaniam may still have a choice to come back as Deputy President should he fails in his bid for presidency.
Since the election for Deputy President will be taking place about two months after presidential election, Dr Subramaniam can still contests for that position. Probably his supporters may pressure him to contest again for Deputy Presidency.
MIC is definitely set for further surprises and twists in the coming months!
