MIC President Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam yesterday reminded party members to remain loyal and not become 'enemies from within' to betray and destroy the party that has remained a strong foundation for 71 years.

He chided some MIC leaders who named themselves as candidates for certain Parliament or state assembly seats even before the candidates for the 14th General Election (GE14) had been finalised.

"Some have claimed themselves as candidates for the GE14 when we have not even finalised the list. Such action will lead to the destruction of the party. If say three candidates declared themselves as candidates for the same seat, it would be like digging our own grave.

"Therefore, I urge all MIC members to cooperate and support any candidate named for the election," he said in his speech on the first day of the 71st MIC General Assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre, here Saturday.

Dr Subramaniam who is also the Health Minister urged the members to remain united and maintain the respect among one another so that everyone will be at the same wavelength approaching the GE14 as one team and not work for their own interest.

"We are aware that the GE14 is going to be a major challenge. We cannot allow another Indian based party to take over our role in the Barisan Nasional (BN). We need to bring back the glory days of MIC by winning more seats than the GE13.

"We need to double our efforts to restore the trust of the Indian community. This is the promise to our Indian community. We will not simply abandon them," he said.

Dr Subramaniam was earlier reported as saying the MIC was targeting to win seven Parliament and 13 state assembly seats from the 28 overall seats expected to be contested by the MIC.

In the GE13, the MIC won four of the nine parliamentary seats contested and five of the 18 state assembly seats contested.

According to Dr Subramaniam the MIC aims to increase the Indian voters percentage from 50 in the GE13 to 60 ahead of the GE14 since the MIC had managed to register the second largest number of new voters among component parties in the BN after UMNO.

"The Malaysian Action Plan for the Indian Community is the main tool to restore the trust of the Indian community towards MIC and BN," he said.

In April, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had launched the Malaysian Action Plan for the Indian Community as a commitment and determination by the BN government to continue to develop the living standard of the Indian community in the country.

Najib had said the action plan was to help the community concerned especially those in the B40 group (whose household income represents the lowest 40 percent) and carefully prepared using the 'bottom-up' and inclusive approach.

-- BERNAMA