PKR’S Saraswathy Kandasami and Barisan Nasional’s (BN) M. Saravanan have a history of sorts even before they begin battle for the Tapah parliamentary seat in Perak in the November 19 general election.

Saraswathy, who joined PKR in August 2020, told The Malaysian Insight that they have been at loggerheads for the past five years, even leading to court cases.

“We have been seeing each other in court for the last five years as he has been suing and filing frivolous action against me,” she said, without going into details.

The Penang-born lawyer, a first-time PKR-Pakatan Harapan election candidate, said she is prepared to take on Saravanan, the incumbent Tapah MP, as she does not find him a big threat to her political ambitions.

“If you ask me personally, I don’t find him (Saravanan) to be a big name,” the PKR vice-president said.

“The fact that he was a minister or MIC deputy president does not have any impact on me.”

She said the pressure is instead on Saravanan to deliver as she claimed the constituency is very much underdeveloped despite him being the MP there for three terms.

“The others had held the seat for two terms maximum, but if he (Saravanan) contests, it will be his fourth term,” she said.

“There is a great risk because people would tend to measure your performance (there).

“He has been very vocal in asking what Pakatan Harapan did in 22 months (in power), but we can ask him the same question. What has he done in the last 15 years for his constituency?”

Saraswathy, who will be the first woman candidate to contest in the constituency, also accused Saravanan of abusing his position by campaigning in the constituency using government funds.

“I see there are a lot of job carnivals, all kinds of things are being put up now after parliament was dissolved,” she said.

So far, it is said there would be a five-cornered fight for the Tapah seat.

Apart from Saraswathy and Saravanan, the other contenders are Perikatan Nasional’s Muhammad Yadzan Muhammad, Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi (Pejuang) and Mohamed Akbar Sherrif Ali Yasin (Warisan).

The Tapah constituency has 28,000 Malay voters, Chinese (14,000), Orang Asli (9,700) and Indians (8,500). Despite being a Malay-majority constituency, it remains very much a BN-MIC stronghold.

All the candidates who had won there were from the Indian-based BN component party.

‘Tapah no longer a BN stronghold’

Saraswathy said the Tapah constituency, a rural seat, could no longer be deemed a BN stronghold.

Referring to results of previous federal polls, Saraswathy said BN’s win was highly reliant on the 9,000-odd Orang Asli votes, but claimed that the tide might change this time around.

“Tapah has been a stronghold because of the Orang Asli support. They have been giving BN undivided support,” she said.

“But there is a shift among the Orang Asli, where their problems have been neglected and they are just being used as a vote bank,” she said.

“There is a lot that has to be done for them. They are also beginning to realise that they have been marginalised and have been taken for a ride.

“Support has been dwindling as BN won by only 614 votes in the 2018 general election. In the 2008 election, BN won by a margin of 3,020 votes and 7,927-vote majority in 2013.

“So it cannot be deemed BN’s stronghold anymore.”

Despite Pakatan Harapan (PH) not giving much attention to the seat in the 2018 polls, the opposition coalition was able to reduce the majority to triple-digit.

“None of the bigwigs came to Tapah to campaign. (Then PH prime minister candidate) Dr Mahathir Mohamad didn’t go there, Azmin (Ali) didn’t go, I don’t remember anyone going to campaign there because it was already deemed a BN stronghold,” she said.

“So despite not much attention given to this constituency, PH did well to reduce the majority.”

Based on the past election results, Saraswathy said there has been resistance from voters in Tapah to cast their ballot for BN. – November 5, 2022.