This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 9, 2018 - April 15, 2018

In GE13, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi retained the Bagan Datoh parliamentary seat by only 2,108 votes in defeating PKR candidate Mahdi Hasan.

His deputy at the Bagan Datoh Umno division, Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya, barely squeezed through, winning Rungkup by just 613 votes. Rungkup is one of two State Assembly seats in the constituency. The other is Hutan Melintang.

But BN could not win Hutan Melintang. Its candidate from the MIC, R Supramaniam, failed to get past the incumbent, S Kesavan of PKR, in a four-cornered fight with an independent candidate and one from Berjasa.

But all that is in the past, Zahid said at a ceremony in Bagan Datoh in February, in conjunction with the Hindu festival of Ponggal. As he sees it , winning Hutan Melintang in GE14 will go a long way towards ensuring a convincing victory for BN in Bagan Datoh and Rungkup.  Hence, in front of an audience of mostly MIC members, the Umno leader reminded them that they must work harder to win the seat.

His remarks must have meant the MIC would be given another shot at the constituency. Why would he say what he said otherwise?

However, Umno, or to be specific the Bagan Datoh Umno division that Zahid heads, has other ideas.

To the division, it is time for Umno to be given the mandate as MIC has already been given enough opportunities to win the state seat, but failed. That was an obvious refererence to GE12 and GE13, when MIC candidates were defeated by Kesavan.

The division feels Umno can win Hutan Melintang this time.

According to sources, Umno Bagan Datoh has brought the request to Zahid, who holds powerful positions in the government and BN, where he is the No 2, and in Umno, where he is a vice-president with the functions of a deputy president. Thus, the Bagan Datoh division expects its ketua bahagian to deliver Hutan Melintang to Umno to contest .

Zahid could not be reached for comments at the time of writing.

However, an Umno insider tells The Edge it has been decided “in principle” that Umno will contest Hutan Melintang , adding that “after all, the seat was ours before giving it to the MIC”.

MIC secretary-general Datuk Seri S Vel Paari did not respond to queries by The Edge.

As the Umno insider said, Hutan Melintang used to be contested by Umno. However, it was given to the MIC in the 1990 election. Its candidate, Datuk G Rajoo, won and went on to retain the seat in the subsequent elections.

But in GE12, S Thangeswari of the MIC lost to Kesavan. And a change of candidate in GE13 in 2013 could not help MIC win Hutan Melintang.

Mohsin Abdullah is a contributing editor. He has covered politics for over four decades.

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