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Pandithan says he will answer all questions on the rumours of a merger with MIC at the IPF national conference on July 1. |
KUALA LUMPUR: A group of Indian Progressive Front veterans and former members met on Sunday in what was billed as an effort to save the party.
The meeting came in the wake of rumours that its president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan was planning a merger with the Malaysian Indian Congress.
Pandithan was sacked as the MIC vice-president by party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu about 20 years ago.
He went on to set up the IPF, but the two men appeared to have left that episode behind.
His presence at the MIC general assembly recently has exacerbated the concerns of some of his followers.
About 50 of them, including party loyalists and some of those who were sacked from the MIC together with Pandithan in 1988, passed a resolution at the Sunday meeting calling on him to leave the party.
The IPF’s former secretary-general K. Panjamurti said it would be unfair if the party was to be dissolved because of Pandithan’s personal interest and asked him to leave gracefully if he wanted to join the MIC.
Panjamurti said he had confronted Pandithan, but the latter had denied he was planning anything.
"We are still concerned and worried," Panjamurti said.
"Many branches have been closed down. All the 57 branches in Perak have been dissolved as a result of Pandithan’s failure to submit their accounts for years. Now we don’t know how many branches are still registered."
Panjamurti was one of the 13 supporters of Pandithan who was sacked from the MIC.
M. Kanagasabai, who said he was the founding president of the party in 1990, said almost 90 per cent of the people who originally supported Pandithan had left the party over the years as they were unhappy with his leadership and administration.
"The last straw came when he became friendly with Samy Vellu. He wants to patch up and ditch us, which is okay, but to dissolve the party is terrible. We will not accept it," he said.
Sunday’s meeting also asked Panjamurti to lead the party.
"We will announce this at our annual general meeting on June 24," Panjamurti said.
Pandithan dismissed the allegations against him.
"Anyone can say anything. I cannot be responding to everything they say. Furthermore, these people are no longer in the party. They left 10 to 15 years ago," he said.
Asked about the possibility of the IPF being dissolved and a merger with MIC, Pandithan laughed and said he would announce his decision at the party’s national conference on July 1.
"I will answer all questions there."
