KUANTAN: Unperturbed by the tug of war for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat, Pahang MIC has set its sights on winning the constituency by a bigger majority in the 14th General Election(GE14).
State MIC chairman Datuk R. Goonasakaren said the party's Cameron Highland coordinator Datuk C. Sivaraajh had been doing the groundwork along with other MIC division leaders in the runup to GE14.
He said as far as MIC was concerned, the seat belonged to the party and Menteri Besar (Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob) had confirmed this on several occasions.
"I hope MyPPP(People’s Progressive Party) president Tan Sri M. Kayveas understands that the parliamentary seat belongs to MIC and whatever he has been doing in Cameron Highlands was under the BN spirit of cooperation to help MIC for the election. However, our priority now is to regain the peoples’ support and leave the choice of candidate to the top leaders to decide.
"MIC is solving the problems and concerns raised by the people there as we hope to secure a bigger victory this time compared to 2013. Some might say Cameron Highlands is a BN safe seat but we are not taking things for granted," he said.
Goonasakaren said the main issues faced by the constituents there were related to land and he had been frequently meeting representatives from the Land Office to discuss and look for a long term solution.
BN component parties MyPPP and MIC are both vying to contest the Cameron Highlands seat in GE14.
Palanivel, who is no longer an MIC member, won the parliamentary seat in the 13th General Election(GE13) with a majority of 462 votes.
Last year, Kayveas announced that he planned to contest in Cameron Highlands either under the BN ticket or by fielding himself as an independent candidate in the GE14.
Meanwhile, Goonasakaren, who is the coordinator for the Sabai state seat in Bentong, said he was confident that the party would recapture the seat after losing by a narrow 117 majority in GE13.
"The voters have realised that DAP could not deliver its promises and has not brought the anticipated changes over the last five years. Judging by the current scenario, we will be able to wrestle back the seat in GE14 as we are working diligently at the grassroots level.
It is learnt that D. Kamache from DAP who won the seat in GE13 will not be defending the Sabai state seat and a newcomer is likely to be fielded.