BERSATU will be fielding a greenhorn in the MIC heartland of Tapah, Perak as it aims to take down a two-term deputy minister.

Bersatu, the newest party in Pakatan Harapan, will put up the party’s key strategist Rais Hussin, who is expected to go up against Deputy Youth and Sports Minister M. Saravanan.

Tapah has been a traditional MIC seat. The Barisan Nasional component party currently has three parliamentary seats – Tapah, Hulu Kelang in Selangor and Segamat in Johor.

This development comes after it was reported that 24-year-old Bersatu youth chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman will go up against Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Ahmad Razali Ibrahim in the Muar parliamentary seat.

According to sources from Bersatu, Rais, who is of Indian-Muslim origin, would be ideal to tackle the Tapah seat, in which racial composition is made up of mainly Malay voters and a huge portion of Indians.

Tapah has 45,000 voters with Malays making up the bulk of it at 47%, followed by Chinese (32%) and Indians (20%). There is also a 1% Orang Asli population in the semi-rural seat.

“He would be ideal to contest there. We have had our studies before and there would be a swing from Tapah being a MIC seat,” the source told The Malaysian Insight on the condition of anonymity.

Rais, a former businessman, is also Perak-born and had worked closely with the BN-Perak government before joining Bersatu.

“Even before joining Bersatu, he has gone down to the ground there,” the source said.

Rais neither confirmed nor denied that he would be running in Tapah but was up for anything that the party decided.

“I have stated my intentions, let the party decide. They know what is the best for me and where I should be fielded,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Saravanan won Tapah in the 13th general election in a four-cornered fight involving PKR, Berjasa and an independent candidate.

The MIC central working committee (CWC) member defeated PKR candidate K. Vasanta Kumar by a 7,927 vote majority.

The victory, however, was marred in controversy after Vasanta’s aide, K. Murugan had gone missing for several days and his body was found floating in a mining pool on polling day.

It was reported that Vasanta had lodged several police reports during the campaign period, alleging that there were violent threats made against him and his aides.

Rais, meanwhile, was in charge of of several telecommunication projects under the state government, which included developing free Wifi and building a solar plant.

He was also an adviser to Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir on socio-economic matters.

After joining Bersatu, Rais was tasked with coming out with PH’s manifesto for the 14th general election.

Rais and Syed will be contesting in their first ever general election. – March 24, 2018.