THE Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) will be considered a failure if it does not win all the seats allocated to the party in the upcoming 15th general election, its president Vigneswaran Sanasee said today.  

Speaking at MIC’s 76th annual general assembly, Vigneswaran also shared his gratitude to Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for allowing the party to contest in all their traditional seats.  

He said Zahid had made the decision to allow MIC to contest in nine parliamentary and 18 state assembly seats.  

“If MIC wants to be in Putrajaya, all you’ll have to do is to make sure MIC wins all these seats it contests, which is also dependent on Indian votes.  

“If we don’t win these seats, that means MIC has failed,” he added when delivering his keynote speech today.  

Last month, Zahid, at the launch of the National MIC Brigade, had said that all the seats contested by MIC in the last federal polls would be given to the party for GE15.  

He also said that if MIC wanted more seats, it could negotiate with BN’s deputy chairman Mohamad Hasan.

Vigneswaran claimed that it was impossible for MIC to win all the seats it was contesting without the help of their members at branch and division levels as well as coalition partners Umno and MCA.

He added that members and coalition partners should work hand-in-hand to take over Putrajaya completely.

“We cannot only work in constituencies given to our party and not work elsewhere. We depend on Umno and MCA.

“If we don’t work for them, then we will not be able to take over Putrajaya.

“If we don’t take Putrajaya back, then there is no use even in winning all our seats,” the former Dewan Negara president said in his speech today.

Later during a press conference today, Zahid said that MIC would be offered an alternative seat in exchange for the party’s traditional stronghold seat in Cameron Highlands.

Zahid said that MIC had agreed to the offer and claimed that the party had finalised the candidate for the new seat.

However, he did not divulge more information.

MIC has held the Cameron Highlands seat since 2004.

It lost the seat in GE14, after the Election Court nullified its candidate Sivarraajh’s victory.

Later, BN fielded a native, Ramli Mohd Nor during the by-election.

Ramli later won the by-election and became the first Orang Asli MP. – October 10, 2022.