KUALA LUMPUR: The guessing game on who will be Barisan Nasional’s candidate for Buntong in Perak is over.
MIC president Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam announced today that its deputy women’s chief T. Thangarani would be fielded for the state seat.
The seat was reportedly eyed by both MIC and MyPPP.
When asked about how MyPPP would respond to the decision to field MIC candidates in both Buntong and Cameron Highlands, Subramaniam said the choice was made by Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“We only felt that we wanted to retain our seats. If the prime minister wanted to give other winnable seats to other parties we have no problem.”
“But Cameron Highlands is ours. Buntong is also ours,” he said while introducing its nine parliamentary and 18 state seat candidates for the 14th General Elections at the party headquarters here today.
He reminded members that MIC would take action against those who sabotaged BN candidates.
“Out of every candidate selected, four or five will be dropped as they are not perceived as winnable. They can feel dejected or frustrated for one or two days but they have to overcome these feelings, move on after that and help candidates win.”
“They cannot disturb those who are fielded. This not just for MIC but for all component parties within BN, they must move forward,” he added.
MyPPP president Tan Sri M. Kayveas had threatened that he would reconsider his decision to pull the party out of the coalition after a meeting with Najib over the coalition’s refusal to field him in Cameron Highlands.
On Sunday, BN announced that it was fielding MIC Youth chief Datuk C. Sivarraajh for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat while naming MyPPP’s Datuk Loga Bala Mohan for the Segambut seat.
Kayveas, who had earlier rejected BN secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor’s offer of Segambut, said the party did not endorse Loga’s candidacy for the seat.
Meanwhile, Thangarani said she hoped to help the poor in Buntong if she wins in the polls.
The 55-year-old English teacher said the development of the state constituency had been at a standstill since the opposition took over 10 years ago.
“As the seat was won by the DAP in the last general election, we have been unable to bring major projects or development to the area as there is a lot of opposing ideas from the Opposition,” said the mother of three to reporters here today.
Prior to 2013, the seat was contested by MCA.
It was earlier reported that Perak MyPPP vice-chairman Datuk Naran Singh and MIC NGO sub-committee chairman S. Jayagopi were eyeing the seats.
DAP’s A. Sivasubramaniam has been Buntong assemblyman since 2008.
In GE13, Sivasubramaniam defeated BN’s Sivarraajh by a majority of 8,629 votes.