By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), upbeat at its improved prospects, has said it will seek to re-contest all the seats it lost in the 2008 general election.
MIC President G. Palanivel has said the party would be ready to negotiate with other constituents of the ruling alliance, Barisan Nasional (BN), to put up its candidates for those seats.
The MIC, Malaysia’s oldest and largest party that speaks for the country’s 2.1 million ethnic Indians, lost 16 of the 19 parliamentary seats it was allotted as a BN constituent in the last elections.
Among the losers was then MIC chief, S. Samy Vellu, now special envoy for infrastructure assigned to India and other South Asian nations.
Palanivel said Barisan Nasional could win back the seats that were lost in the last elections.
“They (voters) used to support us (MIC) and the Barisan. Now, we need to work hard to gain their trust and I am confident that we will be able to gain their support,” he added.
Palanivel’s comments came Sunday as Muhyeddin Yassin, the deputy prime minister and BN’s deputy chief, said the Indians were returning to the MIC and the ethnic Chinese were going back to another BN component, Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA).
Yassin was quoted in the New Straits Times as asking the MIC, the MCA, and other BN components to put their organisational elections on hold and concentrate on the general elections.
Although the next round of elections is due only in March 2013, Prime Minister Najib Razak and Yassin have in the recent past fuelled speculation that these might be advanced.
The elections were “round the corner”, Yassin said some weeks ago.