Vigneswaran vows new direction for MIC

KUALA LUMPUR: New MIC president Tan

Sri S.A. Vigneswaran

( pic) has pledged to steer the party to a new direction following its crushing defeat in the general election.

The Senate president won the post uncontested yesterday, getting 3,616 nominations yesterday and was the only one who filed his nomination papers for the post.

“I am taking over the presidency at a time when we are not part of the government. We are in the same scenario as when MIC was founded in 1946.

“This is a good time to learn from that period, when we had no government positions yet the grassroots leaders worked hard to ensure the rights of the Indian community were protected,” he told a press conference after being congratulated by his predecessors Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam and Tun S. Samy Vellu.

Dr Subramaniam was defeated in the Segamat parliamentary seat.

MIC won only two parliamentary and three state seats in GE14, in what was one of its poorest showings.

The Kuala Lumpur-born Vigneswaran, who is MIC Klang division chief, holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Staffordshire University, England, and a Universiti Malaya Certificate in Legal Practice.

He was Kota Raja MP from March 2004 to March 2008 and was parliamentary secretary to the Youth and Sports Ministry during that period.

In MIC, he had held the position of Youth chief before he contested one of three posts of vice-president in 2013.

He lost that bid but managed to win a vice-presidency in the re-elections held on Nov 6, 2015.

The nomination for the deputy presidency will take place on July 29, with incumbent Datuk Seri S.K. Devamany expected to be challenged by Tapah MP Datuk M. Saravanan.

Nominations for the MIC central committee will take place on the same day, with the election date set for Aug 7.