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OMS Thiagarajan dropped a bombshell when he claimed that an UMNO leader helped to sabotage Samy Vellu’s election campaign in Sungai Siput in the 2008 general elections. Does it mean that the loss was not due to HINDRAF, Makkal Sakthi or anti-MIC sentiments? This is really shocking because all this while the general perception attributed Samy’s loss to HINDRAF and anti-BN sentiments.

Anyway, as I like to say – follow the money trail. It seems the reason the UMNO leader did that was to grab the lucrative Works Ministry from MIC.

Read about it at The Star or the article from Malaysiakini below:

Tamil newspapers are abuzz over the news that a Barisan Nasional component party leader was involved in undermining MIC president and former works minister S Samy Vellu’s chances during the March 8 general election.

It is learnt that the leader in question is from Umno and the alleged conspiracy was centred around the party’s desire to seize control of the Works Ministry from MIC.

During last year’s general election, Samy Vellu was defeated in his traditional parliamentary stronghold of Sungai Siput and subsequently dropped from the cabinet line up.

The Works Ministry fell into the hands of Umno while MIC was given, what most regard as the ‘more junior’ Human Resources Ministry.

The ‘sabotage’ allegation was raised by prominent Indian businessman OMS Thiagarajan earlier this week.

He was quoted in the Tamil newspapers as saying he had the assistance of a BN component party leader to oust Samy Vellu from Sungai Siput to ensure that the MIC president did not retain the position of works minister.

Thiagarajan is a close associate of the MIC president’s former estranged deputy S Subramaniam.

Saravanan: Probe the allegation

Meanwhile, MIC information chief and Deputy Federal Territories Minister M Saravanan said the allegation should be fully investigated as it was very serious.

“I will be talking to BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor about the matter soon,” he told Bernama.

Saravanan said that if the allegation was true, stern action must be taken against the component party leader.

“I am not accusing Thiagarajan of making a false statement, but I just want BN component party leaders cleared of any such allegation.

“This allegation can create a lot of discomfort and result in disunity among BN component parties.

“It is a serious allegation and should be clarified as soon as possible,” he added.

Samy Vellu has yet to comment on the issue.

Killer says:

This is a joke lah MP.

Everyone knows (read the Tamil papers it was there) that OMS was the one of the MIC guys allied to Subra who campaigned against SV during the GE.

During the GE a whole lot of people worked to bring down SV. An entire army of Hindraf, MIC folks (who opposed to SV) and others belonging NGOs were there at SP to work against SV.

But from I did not hear of any UMNO leaders sabaotaging him since he had a very good relationship with the other component parties. If you been to SP you would know that he has done a lot of infrastructure work using his WM connections.

As for the WM position, what I know it that Dr M gave the job to SV in order to avoid any UMNO politicians to abusing the ministry for projects and to prevent claims of biasness. It is known even among UMNO leaders that this was a tough job that only Samy can manage and that’s why he was held in high esteem by the Malays in WM and UMNO as far as his performance in WM as concerned.

As for the minister post being lost, that if I heard correctly, is a message to MIC to buck up and to recover their influence after their disasterous GE outing. I think SV tried to ask for the ministry but was rejected by Pak Lah.

Posted on August 7th, 2009