A sad day for MIC: Samy's men wins

Palanivel Wins MIC No 2 Post

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 (Bernama) -- MIC long serving president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu maintained his grip on the largest Indian-based party in the country after his preferred candidates captured all key posts at the party's polls held at the Putra World Trade Centre here Saturday.
Leading the president's cast was deputy president Datuk G. Palanivel who beat former deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam and former party vice-president Datuk S. Sothinathan with a 82 vote majority.
Palanivel polled 629 votes against Subramaniam's 547 votes and Sothinathan's 280 votes.
A total 1,460 delegates voted in the polls .
In the vice-president's race, Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam came out tops in the seven cornered fight. The other two who will fill the three veep seats up for grabs were deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk S.K. Devamany and Federal Territories deputy minister Datuk M. Saravanan.
Dr Subramaniam polled 1,260 votes, Devamany 1,122 votes and Saravanan 1,030 votes.
Other candidates in the race were Datuk S. Balakrishnan (471 votes), Datuk V.K.K. Teagarajan (215 votes), P. Subramaniam (471 votes) and P. Mariayee (61 votes).
Meanwhile, in the race for the 23 central working committee (CWC) seats, all but four of the president's preferred candidates made the cut.
Samy Vellu had last month named 27 CWC preferred candidates to fill the 23 posts.
Those who managed to break the president's list were Datuk S. Ganeson of Kedah, Madhu Marimuthu, K.P. Samy and S.P. Manikavasagam, all from Selangor.
Five state chiefs lost the CWC contest. They are Datuk G. Rajoo (Perak), Datuk T. Rajagopalu (Negeri Sembilan), Datuk R. Raghavan (Melaka), Datuk Dr R. Rajapathy (Penang) and Datuk V. Saravanan (Kedah).
Samy Vellu speaking to reporters after the results were announced by MIC election steering committee head Datuk K. Vijayanathan, thanked delegates for showing support for him.
"I hope the winners will be a good team to work for the betterment of the Indian community. Today, the election is over and we should not continue our feuds. Its time to close ranks," he added.
He also urged supporters of all camps in the polls to bury any animosity for the sake if the Malaysian Indian community.
"Some people have been speaking about change and I have given them change. Out of the 23 CWC members elected 18 are new members, all the three vice-presidents are new and the deputy president is only three years old serving his second term," Samy Vellu said.
The results itself, say observers attending the MIC elections, was a manifestation of Samy Vellu's iron grip of the MIC.
"This shows that he still has the support of the majority. There is no denying this. Despite the tough contest at this election, Palanivel who was backed by Samy Vellu made it.
"It is not only that, all his men made it to the vice-presidency and the CWC, except for two. It only shows that Samy Vellu is unshakeable in the party," said a party analyst.
Asked if Sothinathan had played spoiler by "stealing" votes from Subramaniam, resulting in the former deputy president's loss, he said this could work the otherway around.
"We can't say all of Sothinathan's votes would have gone to Subramaniam if Sothinathan did not contest. It could have gone to Palanivel and the deputy president could have had a wider majority," he pointed out.
While, Palanivel's win could be contributed to Samy Vellu strength in the party, the deputy president's support on his own should not be understimated.
A party veteran, who declined to be named, said Palanivel too had some support in the party and this added to Samy Vellu's support, ensured the win.
"We can't say that Palanivel's win was solely because of Samy Vellu. The deputy president too has his own strength and support and this proved important in a three-cornered fight like this," he said.
In the 2006 election, Palanivel beat Subramaniam with a 438 vote majority in a straight fight. Palanivel polled 933 votes against Subramaniam's 495 votes in that election.
Although Palanivel's majority was reduced at this polls, observers say were due to a three cornered fight.
The party now has to focus on one important agenda, which is to win back the Malaysian Indian community.

tunku : everyone knows how much samy throw money to make sure his men will be the winners and his legacy will stay on in mic.like what DS Najib had said earlier that it is pointless for them to strive to be popular within their own party when they are unpopular with the people.with this new team line up i am sure mic will not gain any supports from the majorityof the Indian community.we will see the result in the next general election.blame it to the delegates.i think mic and all other component parties members should start asking for the voting to come from the divisions not from the delegates which can be bought easily.