MIC mulls sacking Mugilan

By G. Manimaran - The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — The MIC is contemplating disciplinary action and a possible sacking of its Youth deputy leader, V. Mugilan, whom it accused of “stealing” the Hulu Selangor seat from its official choice.
Mugilan was said to be Umno’s pick for the April 25 by-election, but MIC has insisted that its deputy president, Datuk G. Palanivel, will represent the Barisan Nasional (BN).
“Whoever who acts to steal a seat from the MIC will face action. On top of the list now is Mugilan,” MIC president, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, said after a late-night emergency central working committee (CWC) meeting here yesterday.
The meeting that went past an hour was held on the eve of BN’s scheduled announcement of its candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election.
Samy Vellu said the CWC will decide on the disciplinary action in the morning.
“We are still investigating the issue and will continue [to do so] until 10am,” he added.
The Malaysian Insider understands the long-serving party president will be meeting Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in the morning to finalise the coalition’s choice.
Muhyiddin has appealed to BN members to stop speculating the issue.

Samy said Mugilan’s name was topmost on the list of those to be punished. — Picture by Choo Choy May

Mugilan, who is the Hulu Selangor MIC Youth chief, is said to be popular with the voters and has been nominated by the local Umno division, much to the surprise of MIC, which has named Palanivel for the seat since 1990, where he began the first of his four terms as the constituency’s MP. He lost narrowly by 198 votes in Election 2008 to PKR’s Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad, whose death last month triggered the by-election.
The Malaysian Insider had asked Samy Vellu if Palanivel remained the party’s endorsed candidate for the by-election, but the MIC head declined to respond: “I have no comment on that.”
The Selangor MIC has protested against what it called interference in deciding the BN candidate, who will face PKR’s choice, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.
Nomination day for the seat, approximately the size of Malacca but with only 64,500 voters spread over three state constituencies, is on April 17