By Shannon Teoh - The Malaysian InsiderSUNGAI PETANI, March 29 – He may be de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s choice, but not all PKR supporters have fallen in line with the decision to field enterpreneur S. Manikumar as the Bukit Selambau candidate.
The Malaysian Insider understands that a group of local party members will pull out of PKR as a result of dissatisfaction with the choice of the 35-year-old political novice.
Also, PKR has a headache since no less than three of the independent candidates running in Bukit Selambau have past or current affiliations to the party.
This comes even after Anwar had to come to Bukit Selambau to soothe tensions among disgruntled members here.
After a spate of scandals involving PKR elected representatives recently, including V. Arumugam himself who was accused of bigamy, Anwar was forced to place a clean record ahead of other considerations in the selection process.
But with the Bukit Selambau seat offering the carrot of an executive council place for an Indian candidate, everyone including the DAP and Hindraf have been lobbying for it since Arumugam first vacated the seat in early February.
Within PKR, various candidates had also believed each of them was the best choice.
One of them is A. Jayagopal, the 57-year-old independent candidate who is likely to have his membership revoked.
He was one of 15 who went through the interview process with Kedah PKR chief Ahmad Kassim and was found wanting.
“Even before this, they would bring outsiders like N. Gobalakrishnan. Do we need them to teach locals about politics?” the Alor Setar native told The Malaysian Insider today.
After Manikumar’s candidacy was announced, there were murmurs of discontent over the selection of an ordinary member without any political distinction or service.
At today’s nomination, Manikumar seemed jittery and more than willing to let his vice president Azmin Ali do the talking.
Members from Padang Serai and Merbok divisions have gone on record to state their dissatisfaction and even Hindraf has warned that relations with PKR could suffer from this.
Hindraf were backing the choice of either its national coordinator S. Thanenthiran, lawyer R. Surendran or Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee Vasantha Kumar.
Its national events coordinator R. Kannan had warned that Indians were unhappy with the choice of Manikumar.
The danger now for PKR is that a number of its local supporters would instead vote for Jayagopal or two other independents running with a PKR past, former Baling chief Radzi Md Lazim and S. Moganakumar who was Arumugam’s special assistant.
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