By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : The son of Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) chief S. Samy Vellu has said he will not contest the party poll, ending speculation that his father was promoting him to eventually succeed him.
“I have decided to resolve the issue which the opposition is harping on,” Vell Paari, who is adviser to the party’s youth wing and heads Maika Holdings, the business wing, said in a statement.
He said he was keen on contesting the vice president’s post but felt that he had a moral obligation to the 60,000 Maika shareholders, The Star reported.
“It is not right for me to think of politics at the moment as I have not found a solution to refund the money to the shareholders,” he said.
The move came as Vellu, who has been the party chief for 29 years and is currently in his 11th term, nominated G. Palanivel as the deputy president and a bunch of loyalists for the post of vice presidents in the party poll due in September.
Some critics of Vellu have said they would stay on in the contest.
A constituent of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), MIC is Malaysia’s oldest party that claims to speak for the two million-plus ethnic Indian community.
A bulk of it is Tamils who settled here during the British era and forms about eight percent of the country’s multi-racial 28 million population.