GEORGE TOWN, May 24 ― The nondescript coffee shop in Air Itam holds a lot of memories for DAP’s Bukit Gelugor candidate Ramkarpal Singh Deo.

When his late father, Karpal Singh, held his press conferences in the modest surroundings, Ramkarpal, was often at his side.

“Coming here…visiting all these places in my campaigning brings me very painful memories,” the lawyer and frontrunner in the by-election said.

“Just a year ago, we were all doing the exact same thing, and going the same places to help my father campaign for the general election.”

Karpal Singh, the formidable lawyer and MP popularly known as the Tiger of Jelutong, was killed in a car crash on April 17, triggering a by-election for the Bukit Gelugor parliamentary seat that he had  held since 2004.

DAP picked Ramkarpal as the most suitable candidate to succeed his father, taking into account the 38-year-old’s lengthy experience as Karpal’s campaign manager as well as his assistant in Parliament.

Karpal’s sudden death left the family in shock. Now they’ve been thrown headlong into a by election, leaving them little time to grieve.

For Ramkarpal, the bustle spent on the campaign trail all over Air Itam, Paya Terubong and Seri Delima daily since nomination day on May 12 has brought forth both bitter and sweet memories.

“On one side, each place we went to, each ceramah we held, it reminded us so much of my father and these are the times when we felt his absence the most.”

“But on the other hand, we were too busy with my campaign, we didn’t have much time to dwell on it,” he said.

Karpal may be gone but the family remains close with everyone pitching in to help Ramkarpal’s campaign.

Bukit Gelugor by-election candidate Ramkarpal Singh is seen signing autographs for his supporters at the grand ceramah last night. ― Picture by K.E. Ooi

Jagdeep Singh Deo, Ramkarpal’s eldest brother who is also the Datuk Keramat state assemblyman, said ever since Karpal started contesting in Penang in 1978, everyone in the family including close relatives and friends helped with the campaigning.

“It has always been this way since then, that every general election, everyone will come to our house in Jalan Utama and help out,” he said.

This time though, the preparations for the campaign is at the operations centre instead of at the family home.

In the first week of Ramkarpal’s campaign, Jagdeep and another brother, the Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, were seen accompanying Ramkarpal on his walkabouts.

The brothers have also appeared at ceramah where they reminisced about Karpal before extolling Ramkarpal’s credentials and abilities.

Karpal’s widow, Gurmit Kaur, has been helping out at the  DAP Bukit Gelugor operations centre daily.

Her sons believe it has keep her occupied and not dwell too much on Karpal’s absence.

“She is an iron woman and she is very committed to see Ramkarpal take over our father’s legacy.  I believe this is given her more strength to move on,” Jagdeep said.

That seems to be the family’s one main goal for now, to help Ramkarpal in his campaign so that he can continue with Karpal’s legacy.

“Everything happened so fast and we went into the campaign almost immediately after his funeral so we need to concentrate on the campaign, we don’t have time to digest or really mourn my dad’s passing yet,” Jagdeep said.

Ramkarpal is facing a four-cornered fight with Parti Cinta Malaysia’s Huan Cheng Guan and two independent candidates, Abu Backer Sidek Mohammad Zan and Mohd Nabi Bux Mohd Sathar.

The parliamentary seat was traditionally held by MCA, a Chinese-based Barisan Nasional component party, but the party has decided to opt out of the by-election.

DAP is expected to retain the seat but the party is mostly concerned over a lower voter turnout and is focussing  its campaign on getting voters out of their homes and into polling stations on May 25.

A total 82,431 voters are registered in Bukit Gelugor. At last year’s general election,voter turnout was 84 per cent.

Karpal first won the seat with a 1,261 vote majority in 2004 retained it with a 21,015 vote majority in 2008. Last year his majority swelled to  42,706.