KUALA LUMPUR: The emergency MIC Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting held on Wednesday (Nov 2) is a “family thing”, says party president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran.
"Every time political parties have issues, we will have a meeting to resolve it.
"This meeting is also held so that all political decisions can be endorsed by the CWC," he told reporters when asked about any issue arising within the Barisan Nasional coalition leading to the meeting today.
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Asked again why MIC was not present at the Barisan candidates list announcement event on Tuesday (Nov 1) night, Vigneswaran merely reiterated he was in a meeting.
"Like Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Barisan chairman) said, I had a meeting," he said.
At the event last night, MIC was allocated 10 parliamentary seats for the 15th General Election instead of the 12 requested.
Several seats were given to Malaysia Makkal Sakti Party and Malaysia Indian Muslim Congress (KIMMA), under Barisan's ticket.
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The absence of the party led to speculation that a rift has developed within Barisan due to lack of seat allocation and "disagreements” between the top leadership on the future of the coalition if it wins the elections.
It is also believed that MIC were unhappy they were not given the Batu seat in an earlier candidate list, after they had swapped the Sungai Buloh seat with Umno.
In the earlier list, the Batu seat was given to an MCA candidate.
Eventually, MIC was given the Batu seat after Ahmad Zahid announced Datuk Kohilan Pillay as the candidate, but this too was not a candidate of the party's choice.
