SERDANG, Nov 6 — Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk M. Saravanan who was widely tipped to win the post of MIC Deputy President was ousted by Perak Speaker Datuk Seri S. K. Devamany, who was seen as a party outcast and the underdog prior to the election.

Devamany garnered 698 votes while Saravanan was close behind with 681 votes after the ballot papers were counted today.

The announcement by party election committee chairman Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam today, was greeted with mixed reaction from the delegates as there were loud cheers and ‘boos’ at the same time for Devamany.

A total of 1,389 delegates cast their votes at the MIC’s 67th Annual General Meeting (AGM) which was held at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) here.

The race for the number two post started when the post fell vacant after Datuk Seri Dr Subramaniam moved up the rank to replace Datuk Seri G. Palanivel as Party president.

In the contest for the post of three vice-presidents in the 2009 party election, Dr Subramaniam received the most votes with 1,260 votes, followed by Devamany (1,122 votes) and Saravanan 1,030 votes.

In the 2013 election, Devamany only managed to obtain 332 votes to finish seventh out of the eight candidates who were vying for the vice-president’s post while Saravanan came second with 716 votes.

However, the Registrar of Societies cancelled the 2013 election due to irregularities in the election process and appointed the 2009 CWC to conduct a re-election.

The MIC AGM and election held today was the most anticipated event in the history of the MIC in more than a decade. — Bernama