KUALA LUMPUR: The ongoing drama surrounding the candidacy of G Palanivel for the Hulu Selangor seat is a result of MIC president S Samy Vellu 'jumping the gun'.
Otherwise, MIC former youth chief SA Vigneswaran said it would have been a non-issue.
"There is no use in (Samy Vellu) blaming others for his mistake by alleging that his rivals are out to sabotage the MIC candidate. He is the one who behaved like the Barisan Nasional chairman," he told FMT.
Samy Vellu had named MIC deputy president Palanivel as the candidate, a day after the incumbent Hulu Selangor MP PKR's Zainal Abidin Ahmad passed away.
This irked certain quarters since it is the BN chairman, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who should make the final decision.
Vigneswaran said if Palanivel's name was announced by Najib two to three days before nomination day, then the current episode would not have occurred.
"An experienced party president like Samy Vellu should have kown better. He should have gauged the response from the ground before making recommendations,” he added.
In view of this, Vigneswaran asked what was the motive behind Samy Vellu's action.
Palanivel is the best choice
On the same note, the former youth leader, who heads the BN supporters club, believes that Palanivel is the best man for the job.
He warned that if the BN leadership opted for someone outside of Hulu Selangor, it would be an uphill task to wrest the seat back from PKR.
On Wednesday, FMT quoted party sources as claiming that Palanivel had been dropped, and BN may opt for a local leader, namely Hulu Selangor MIC Youth chief V Mugilan.
The same day, Najib confirmed that MIC would be given the seat, but added that he would personally decide on who the candidate should be.
Previously, there were reports that Umno had wanted the seat.
In the 2008 general election, Zainal had defeated Palanivel by a razor-thin majority of 198 votes.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is the BN elections director, would announce the coalition's candidate on April 15.
Nomination is on April 17 and the by-election would be held on April 25.
No comments:
Post a Comment