IPOH: Three-term Buntong assemblyman A. Sivasubramaniam, who has switched parties four times since 2020, will leave it to his current party Bersatu to decide if he should contest there.
“Bersatu has yet to make any announcement on this, but I am hoping to contest there again.
“I have been an assemblyman in Buntong since 2008. I am extremely well-versed with my constituents,” he said when contacted.
Sivasubramaniam was with DAP for about two decades, but he quit the party following the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan state government in March 2020.
After quitting DAP, he spent three months as a Perikatan Nasional-friendly independent before joining Gerakan in June 2020.
In March 2021, he joined Bersatu.
In January this year, it was reported that he was a member of Parti Bangsa Malaysia and was appointed its senior vice-president II.
But last month, Sivasubramaniam was appointed Perak Bersatu’s associate wing information chief after having rejoined the party several months earlier.
There is speculation that a female candidate from DAP would contest in Buntong.
V. Shasha, the Buntong DAP coordinator, has been seen attending to public complaints at the constituency.
“I have been the party’s coordinator for two years.
“However, it is up to the party to make a decision on the candidate,” said Shasha.
Buntong is one of the state seats under the Ipoh Barat parliamentary constituency.
The other state seats are Bercham and Kepayang.
In the last general election, Buntong saw a three-cornered fight between DAP, MIC and Parti Sosialis Malaysia.
Sivasubramaniam won with a majority of 18,005 votes.
The incumbent Ipoh Barat MP is M. Kulasegaran.
The assemblyman for Bercham and Kepayang are Ong Boon Piow and Dr Ko Chung Sen respectively. All three are from DAP.
Another possible female candidate is DAP’s M. Manogaran’s daughter Thulsi, a lawyer by profession.
Manogaran stood in the Cameron Highlands by-election in 2019.
Thulsi is the Buntong DAP legal adviser.
