MIC has reformed and will do better in the upcoming general election after facing its worst ever performance in GE14, said party vice president Sivarraajh Chandran.

“If we look at the scenario of the GE14, that could be the worst performance of MIC ever.

“We are still working on addressing some challenges … but I personally believe (the support for us) would be better than the last general election. 

“So, MIC should do better,” Sivarraajh told The Malaysian Insight in an exclusive interview.

He also said that the party was looking at traditional seats, as well as new prospects for the coming elections, based on data and demographic analysis collected.

“We have three tiers of seats: traditional, swap and new seats.

“Our priority is for constituencies like Sg Siput, Tapah, Sg Buloh, Hulu Selangor and Segamat which we consider are ours by tradition.

“Even Cameron Highlands is our traditional seat but Umno took it in the last by-election, so we were told that a swap seat will be given.”

In the last general election, MIC put in one of the party’s poorest performances; winning only two of nine contested parliamentary seats and similarly three state seats from 18 contested.

M. Saravanan was elected MP for Tapah and Sivarraajh claimed Cameron Highlands.

The party’s elected assemblymen represent Jeram Padang in Negri Sembilan, and Tenggaroh and Kahang in Johor.

In the 2018 poll, then MIC president and health minister Dr S. Subramaniam lost his Segamat seat to PKR’s Santhara Kumar Ramanaidu by 5,476 votes.

Meanwhile, deputy president S.K. Devamany failed in his bid for Sungai Siput, while women’s chief Mohana Muniandy lost in Kapar.

The mere two-seat haul matched MIC’s worst ever election result of 1969. To add insult to injury, the Election Court declared Sivarraajh’s victory in Cameron Highlands null and void after proof of corrupt practices during the election.

Umno contested against MIC in the subsequent by-election and won.

Now, MIC’s only parliamentarian is M. Saravanan, who is also deputy president and the human resources minister under the Perikatan Nasional-led government.

Sivarraajh said that MIC was working hard to win back its traditional seats, and rejected a demand by Umno to sacrifice Sg Siput due to the emotional attachment because it was held by former presidents V. Sambanthan and S. Samy Vellu, going back as far as 1959.

However, MIC lost this constituency for the first time in 2008 to PSM’s Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, who contested under the PKR banner. In 2018, PKR’s Kesavan Subramaniam won.

Sivarraajh said Umno should respect the Indian party and should not humiliate their allies by making demands for traditional seats.

“It is not nice for someone from Umno to issue such a statement and it becomes national news.

“Such a thing humiliates us and antagonise local grassroots. Then there would be issues like boycotts and so on. 

“So, we want to eliminate all this and for that, they should avoid such controversial statements,” he said. – April 4, 2021.