Former MIC president Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu has cautioned aspiring candidates in the forthcoming MIC elections not to drag him into their political battle.
"I will make my choice of who should lead the party at the right time. Don't drag me into your war," he said in response to a Bernama report.
The report quoted MIC deputy president Datuk Dr S.Subramaniam as saying that Samy Vellu had given him the green light to take on Datuk Seri G.Palanivel for the MIC president's post in the elections scheduled next year.
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Bernama reported that Dr Subramaniam was planning to mount a serious challenge for the post which was last contested in 1993, when incumbent Samy Vellu was challenged by S.Subramaniam, better known as Jumbo Maniam. Samy Vellu won easily.
Samy Vellu said he would go down and campaign strongly for whomever he felt was the right person to lead the party.
Samy Vellu relinquished his position in the party in 2010, after suffering a loss in the Sungai Siput parliamentary constituency at the 2008 general election. He had been at the helm of the largest Indian-based political party in the country since 1979.
Under the MIC constitution, a person would have to secure 50 nominations comprising of one proposer and five seconders, all branch chairmen, to be eligible to contest for the president's post.
The MIC president is elected by the party's 3,800 branch chairmen.
