Photo: Ong Soon Hin/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Newly announced Batu independent candidate Tian Chua is not letting news of his sacking from PKR faze him as he prepares to make his bid for the urban parliamentary seat.
He said that he had been prepared to face any action by the party following his decision to contest the seat of which he was a former two-term MP.
"I am fully aware of the consequences of my action and I leave it to the party to make the best decision.
"I’m not complaining about it. The main thing now is that it is the election season and returning the choice to the people.
"It will be up to the people to evaluate the performance of Prabakaran (Batu incumbent MP P. Prabakaran) and decide whether to continue to support him," the former PKR vice-president said when met after filing his candidacy papers at SMK Sentul Utama nomination centre this morning.
Tian Chua added that he was fulfilling a promise made during GE14 to return to Batu as their MP.
Besides Prabakaran, he would be facing off against eight other candidates.
Meanwhile, commenting on Tian Chua’s candidacy, Prabakaran said party talks had failed to change the latter’s mind.
"He (Tian Chua) has his own views on certain things of which I am not aware.
"We are talking about national interests and not individualistic ones.
"The party decided to keep me in (Batu) and I will work on it," he said.
Batu will see an interesting campaigning as social media influencer Nur Fathiah Syazwana, or "Cleopatra" as she is better known, joins Siti Kasim and Too Cheng Huat as Independent candidates for Batu.
As for Barisan Nasional, MIC vice-president Datuk A. Kohilan Pillay successfully filed his nomination papers this morning.
Parti Warisan is fielding businessman Naganathan Pillai (to be known as Nathan Batu on the ballot paper), while PAS’ Azhar Yahya will contest on the Perikatan Nasional ticket.
Mohd Zulkifli Abdul Fattah, from Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM), was also joining in the fight for crowded Batu.
