YONG PENG: MIC hopes to wrap up all its party elections this year and gear up for the 15th general election (GE15) next year.

       Party secretary-general Datuk M. Asojan (pic) said that with the national vaccination drive already in full gear, they expected most of the country’s adult population to be vaccinated in the coming weeks.

       “We hope to have our divisional, state and national party elections by the end of this year,” he said, adding that MIC’s branch elections involving more than 4,000 branches were held in April and May of this year.

       Asojan said that based on the Health Minister’s recent statement, at least 80% of the adult population in the country should be vaccinated by the end of this month.

       “So once this is done we should achieve Stage 4 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) and we should get our party elections done and then turn our attention towards GE15 which is widely expected to be held next year,” he said.

       Asojan noted MIC had no plans to defer its election until after GE15 unlike Umno and MCA.

       “Even our presidential election has been held and our president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran has been returned as president unopposed until 2024,” he said, adding that MIC had 149 divisions nationwide.

       Asojan, who is also Ledang division chairman, said plans to have the party elections either in October or November were already under way.

       Asked if any upsets are expected in this year’s party elections, he said at the moment there were no longer Team A or Team B in the party with everyone uniting under the president.

       “Even the president and deputy have been enjoying a good and healthy working relationship,” he said, adding that based on the party constitution, there would be three-term division leaders who would need to give way to new blood.

       “In Johor alone, there are three such divisions such as Pasir Gudang, Iskandar Puteri and Kluang whose leaders will not be able to continue and will have to give way to others,” he said, adding that he did not expect any fireworks during the party elections.

       On GE15, Asojan said the party would continue to contest in its traditional seats such as Segamat and at least four state seats in Johor.

       Asked if MIC was confident of winning more seats in GE15, Asojan said people had seen how MIC served the community despite losing badly in 2018.

       “We were in the opposition for 22 months and still continued to serve the community. That time was our lowest point.

       “Even our branches dropped to over 2,000 but has since shot up to 4,000 now,” he said, adding that despite being in the Perikatan Nasional government, MIC continued fighting for the community.

       Among its notable services included MIC spending more than RM3mil to charter 23 flights to bring back stranded Malaysians in India during the Covid-19 lockdowns, creating an app for people to request for help and assistance, handling the Kedah temple demolition issue and fighting for the farmers in Cameron Highlands.

       “We did all this for the community and not merely for MIC members,” he said, adding that in the Cameron issue, all 11 MIC councillors including the MB’s special officer resigned in protest against the state government’s decision to evict the farmers.

       Asked about talks that he would be the Segamat parliamentary candidate, Asojan said he would leave it to the party leadership as he was only serving in the constituency as a representative from the party.

       Besides him, MIC officials are also taking care of two state seats, namely Mengkibol and Tangkak.

       MIC has two elected state representatives in Kahang and Tenggaroh.