SIMPANG RENGGAM: The decision on whether MIC would be contesting more parliamentary seats in Johor during the upcoming general election lies in the hands of Barisan Nasional's top leadership, says Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran.
The MIC president said the party’s focus for the election is to ensure that each seat contested by Barisan's component party is won.
"If we can win, we will ask (for more seats). If not, then what is the point? It will be a waste of time, money and election machinery.
"Our focus is not only to win MIC seats. There is no point in us or any other parties winning the seats if we cannot form the government.
"So, our focus for this election is to ensure that the votes from the Indian community are given to all of Barisan's component parties, not just MIC seats. We have never been a self-centred party," he said.
He said this to reporters after attending the Johor MIC Convention here on Friday (Aug 19) night.
He said this when asked whether MIC would ask for more seats to contest in Johor for the upcoming general election.
In the previous general election, MIC contested in one parliamentary seat in Johor. Then party president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam lost the Segamat seat to PKR's Datuk Seri Dr Edmund Santhara Kumar (now Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia) by a 5,476 vote majority.
On a separate matter, Vigneswaran said that MIC is not keen on contesting seats they could not win in Perak.
"It will obviously be a big disappointment. If that is the case, then we give it to other parties.
"There is no point in us contesting if we are going to lose the seat. It will be better for us to give it to other parties and concentrate on winnable seats," he said.
On Tuesday (Aug 16), Perak Barisan chairman reportedly indicated that there will be no change to the allocation of seats for each party within the Barisan coalition for the time being.
This comes after Vigneswaran reportedly expressed his hope for the party to be given winnable state seats in Perak.
He said that the party is keen to have a representative in the Perak state executive council to deal with issues affecting the Indian community.
On Wednesday (Aug 17), Vigneswaran said that MIC has proposed to the Barisan top leadership to let it contest 12 parliamentary seats nationwide in the upcoming general election.
