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According to party sources, the party is eyeing Bagan Dalam and Perai in the mainland, which had been deemed traditional seats for MIC from the 1970s until DAP took over in 2008. The seats are now considered very safe constituencies for DAP.
However, Penang MIC chairman J Dhinagaran told FMT that seat allocation was not discussed during the courtesy call, adding that they only exchanged views on matters involving the state.
“I did not lobby for any seat. We had a good discussion with Lim about Penang matters. Our party president (SA Vigneswaran) will discuss seat allocation with leaders at the higher level.
“Being part of the unity government, we will be with them to ensure MIC members get voters to support PH in the state election,” he said.
He said the courtesy call was made as Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan had formed a coalition federal government. “Various matters were discussed,” he said, without elaborating in a Facebook post.
MIC sources said the party hopes to make a comeback to mainstream politics via the unity government, which will depend heavily on PH’s goodwill.
However, one insider said it “will be next to impossible” for DAP to give up any seat currently held by its Indian members as it has only three in the 40-seat assembly. They are Perai (P Ramasamy), Bagan Dalam (M Sathees) and Datuk Keramat (Jagdeep Singh Deo), while PKR has Batu Uban (A Kumaresan).
“These are the only possible seats and DAP has to be really magnanimous to offer them even one seat. Obviously, it will not go down well with grassroot members and also potential candidates,” he told FMT.
Penang DAP chief Chow Kon Yeow said any seat negotiations will be between PH and BN, not with individual parties.
“Anyway, Penang PH has not started negotiations with BN on seat allocation yet,” said the state’s chief minister.
There are 51.4% Chinese voters in Perai, with Indians making up 36.22%, Malays 11.56% and others 0.18%.
In Bagan Dalam, there are 51.85% Chinese voters, 25.81% Indian voters, 21.87% Malay voters and others at 0.47%.
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