Palanivel thinks the party has good chances in Kedah and Penang
The Tamil daily Makkal Osai today quoted him as saying that MIC was interested in seats in Kedah and Penang.
The statement was a departure from his declaration last July at the party’s annual general meeting that MIC was not interested in swapping seats although it was open to talks if approached by other BN parties.
“We will not let go of the nine parliamentary and 19 state seats,” he said at the AGM, referring to the BN allocation to MIC for the 2008 election. In that election, the party won only three parliamentary and seven state seats.
According to Makkal Osai, Palanivel lamented that MIC did not have any parliamentary seat to contest in either Kedah or Penang despite large Indian populations in the two states.
“What is the need for contesting in four parliamentary seats in Selangor but zero in Kedah and Penang?” he said.
Palanivel also indicated that he did not know if BN would give him a seat to contest in the coming election.
The journalist-turned-politician became the new party president last year after former boss S Samy Vellu decided to retire from politics.
Sources say he is desperate to win a seat to show that he has grassroots support to counter opposition jibes that he is a “back-door minister”.
Palanivel lost in Hulu Selangor in the 2008 election, but he was made a senator to enable his appointment as one of the ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department.
A MIC insider told FMT that Palanivel was trying to “fly north” because his party was becoming weaker in Selangor
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