source<\/a>
\nPORT DICKSON, Fri:<\/p>\nNegri Sembilan MIC candidates remain positive that they will retain all three parliament and state seats although two – Teluk Kemang parliament and Port Dickson state – are embroiled in the only three-cornered fights in the state.
\nState MIC chairman Datuk T. Rajagopalu, who is defending the Port Dickson seat, believes the situation will not cause the party problems and that the two independents posed no threat.\u00a0 Deputy minister of natural resources and environment and MIC vice-president, Datuk S. Sothinathan will defend his Teluk Kemang seat, while first time contender, V. Mogan will contest the Jeram Padang state seat.\u00a0 Sothinathan will face Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) state chief, Kamarul Baharin Abbas and independent candidate Mohd Rashid Arshad, while Rajagopalu will face PKR’s M. Ravi and independent, Jeevakumar Marimuthu. Mogan will take on K. Manoharan (PKR).<\/p>\n
“These independents have sprung out of nowhere. Nobody even knows who they are and suddenly they want to contest in the general election. There is no way voters will abandon BN to vote for somebody they don’t even know,” said Rajagopalu. Asked if there was a possibility that the presence of these independents may split votes, thus giving the BN a lesser majority, he said there would be no such thing. “They are as good as not being there at all. I don’t know what they are trying to achieve by wasting their time here.”<\/p>\n
Sothinathan, meanwhile, also brushed aside the possibility that independents may create confusion among voters, reducing the BN’s majority. “It does not matter how many candidates are contesting. As long as the voters want the BN, they will vote the BN,” he said.<\/p>\n
However, Sothinathan said they were not taking anything for granted and were rigorously campaigning. “Our aim is to try and increase our majorities as much as possible. We want to maximise the campaign period and meet as many voters as possible come polling day,” he said.<\/p>\n
However, contrary to what the MIC candidates say, Jeevakumar believes voters will opt for an independent as opposed to a candidate who is “tied down” to a political party. “What the voters need is someone who can fight for them without being tied down and obligated to any political party,” he said. “An independent can fight without fear or favour and this is what the people want,” said Jeevakumar, who is a lawyer by profession. He said he had no ulterior motives in contesting, but merely wanted to represent the people’s interest. “There is no way I will lose my deposit. I will do my best and believe the voters will make the best choice,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What can the NS people comment on this? The independent candidate Jeevakumar, a lawyers, seems pretty confident of his chances and claims won’t lose his deposit. 2 of the 3 seats sees a 3-cornered fight, so most likely will affect the opposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[130,24],"class_list":["post-1449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-election-2008","tag-mic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}