KUALA LUMPUR – Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has expressed hope that MIC will remain within the coalition, saying BN is strongest when its core component parties stay united.
Zahid said BN respected the autonomy of its component members, particularly long-standing parties such as MIC, but stressed the importance of cohesion among the coalition’s founding partners.
“Whatever decision MIC makes is its right, but we hope these core parties will continue to be strengthened,” he told reporters after the groundbreaking ceremony for the QL Innofood Park industrial project in Hutan Melintang in Perak, today.
The deputy prime minister noted that the recent return of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had brought the number of BN component parties to five, a development he said would further reinforce the coalition.
“With PPP’s return, BN now has five component parties. This should strengthen the coalition,” he said.
Zahid had announced PPP’s reinstatement at the party’s 72nd annual general assembly on January 18, following Home Ministry approval of its appeal against deregistration by the Registrar of Societies in 2019.
Asked whether he had contacted MIC president Tan Sri S.A. Vigneswaran amid reports the party may join Perikatan Nasional, Zahid said he would not interfere in MIC’s internal affairs.
He said Vigneswaran and MIC representatives were absent from the BN Supreme Council meeting in Kota Kinabalu on January 21 as they were overseas at the time.
“We are confident they will make the right decision for themselves and for the coalition,” he said.
Vigneswaran was reported yesterday as saying MIC would convene an extraordinary general meeting to discuss the party’s official participation in Perikatan Nasional.– January 25, 2026