Kuala Lumpur, Sep 5 (Inditop.com) The rivalry in the Malaysian Indian Congress has become sharper with both party chief S. Samy Vellu and his arch rival S. Subramaniam releasing separate ‘official’ lists of candidates for 23 central working committee seats, elections to which will be held next week.
Defying Vellu, who released an ‘official’ list of 23 candidates last month, Subramaniam, contesting one of the deputy presidents’ posts, has come up with his own list of candidates for the central working committee seats.
Interestingly, 12 of the people in Subramaniam’s list are from Vellu’s “official” list of candidates, New Straits Times reported Saturday.
Both have asked their supporters among the delegates to endorse the respective lists.
K.P. Samy, a Subramaniam loyalist whom Vellu had pushed out of the party but welcomed back some weeks ago, said it was now “a do or die battle”.
“This is the first time we are seeing two full official line-ups. We are ready to take over the party.
“We are serious. Subramaniam has to prove that he is ready to take over the party and this is why he has come up with his own official line-up,” he was quoted as saying.
It is understood that the candidates Subramaniam chose from Vellu’s camp were neutral in the proxy fight between him and the party chief, the newspaper said.
Since 1979, Vellu has been leading MIC, the oldest party that speaks for Malaysia’s nearly two million ethnic Indian population.
Vellu was re-elected party president for the 11th time some months ago. The tussle is for the remaining posts.
