KLANG: The spotlight on today’s MIC party elections will be on the six-way tussle for the three vice-president positions.

       Incumbents Datuk T. Mohan, Datuk C. Sivarraajh and Datuk T. Murugiah are being challenged by party secretary-general Datuk M. Asojan, information chief Datuk V. Gunalan and party executive secretary AK Ramalingam.

       Earlier on, MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran and his deputy Datuk Seri M. Saravanan retained their positions uncontested when nominations closed last week.

       The contest for the 21 central working committee (CWC) posts appears to be much stiffer, with 60 vying for those seats when nominations closed.

       However, Vigneswaran’s press secretary L. Sivasubramaniam said 12 people subsequently withdrew from the contest.

       “So now, only 48 people will be fighting for the 21 positions,’’ said Sivasubramaniam when contacted.

       He said voting will be carried out in the party’s 145 divisions beginning from 4pm to 7pm today.

       “The votes will be calculated at the respective divisions and the results will be relayed to the MIC headquarters where they will be tallied,’’ added Sivasubramaniam.

       He said Vigneswaran will announce the results at a press conference on the same evening.

       On the race for the vice-president posts, sources claim that Mohan, Murugiah, Asojan and Ramalingam are the favourites, plus they are also closely aligned with Vigneswaran.

       A good number of those contesting for the CWC positions are party veterans with substantial followings as they have been with MIC for decades.

       A party insider who declined to be named said it was time CWC positions went to those who are younger to facilitate the leadership renewal process.

       “Who will vote for the youngsters when the party’s heavyweights are contesting for CWC positions?

       “And it would be easier for Vigneswaran and Saravanan to work closely with those from their age group or younger, as opposed to party veterans who are much older than them,’’ said the source.

       MIC is undergoing a revival of sorts after the last general election where Saravanan retained his Tapah parliamentary seat in the face of the “Pakatan Harapan tsunami” and the morale within the party is at an all-time high after P. Shanmugam managed to wrest the Gadek seat from G. Saminathan in the recent Melaka election.