Johor elections: Who is PKR’s Indian face? The Tiram seat factor!

JOHOR BARU: As political manoeuvring intensifies ahead of the upcoming Johor state legislative assembly elections, speculation within PKR has emerged over who will be the party’s Indian candidates and which assembly seat will be allocated to them.

The Tiram seat, nestled within the Tebrau parliamentary constituency, has traditionally been assigned to an ethnic Indian candidate by PKR. Tebrau has two state assembly seats, the other one being Puteri Wangsa, currently held by the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance, or MUDA, which the party won under the PH coalition. There has been no indication yet whether PKR will be allocated the Tiram seat again under Pakatan Harapan (PH) and whether the party will field an Indian candidate.

PKR’s Indian candidate wins in Tiram, a Malay majority seat!

PKR fielded S. Gopalakrishnan in the Tiram constituency across two consecutive state elections. During the 2018 General Election, a massive political wave led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) banner swept across Johor. Riding this momentum, Gopalakrishnan pulled off a stunning victory in Tiram. He secured 26,573 votes, defeating the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) candidate by a definitive majority of 8,098 votes.

This victory sent shockwaves through local political circles, given that Tiram’s demographic profile comprises roughly 57% Malay voters, 29% Chinese voters, 13% Indian voters and another 2% from other communities. An Indian from PKR winning by over 8,000 votes in a heavily Malay-majority seat was widely deemed an extraordinary political feat.

However, the landscape shifted dramatically during the 2022 Johor state election. Facing a revitalised Barisan Nasional (BN) machinery, Gopalakrishnan suffered a decisive defeat. He lost the seat to BN-UMNO’s Azizul bin Bachok by a margin of 5,281 votes in a three-cornered battle. Perikatan Nasional (PN), which contested as the third force, polled more votes than PH in that battle. BN secured 22,939, PN polled 17,658 and PH managed with only 12,550 votes.

With Gopalakrishnan heavily tipped to be sidelined for the upcoming polls, whether PKR will maintain its Indian candidate quota for Tiram or swap the seat as part for another under the PH umbrella is yet to be seen.

Interestingly, Tiram has historically seen non-Malay candidacies from multiple parties. In the 2008 election, R. Kumutha contested the seat under a PKR ticket. Later, in 2013, the same candidate contested the seat under the banner of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and it was the first time PAS fielded an Indian candidate under the PAS logo. However, UMNO-BN PKR  ultimately won that contest.

Is the PKR Tebrau Divisional chief next in line?

Should the central PH leadership officially return the Tiram seat allocation to PKR, internal party sources indicate that the current Tebrau PKR division chief, Prakash Maniam, is highly favoured to step up as the new Indian face for the constituency.