JOHOR BAHRU: The Johor MIC expressed hope that the Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership will let the party contest its four traditional seats in the upcoming Johor state election.

Its information chief, S Deva, said the four seats were the Tenggaroh and Kahang state seats, which the party won in the 14th General Election (GE14), and two other seats, namely Gambir and Skudai seats, which it lost.

He said it was one of the issues raised by the Johor MIC in a special meeting of the central MIC in Kuala Lumpur, regarding the state election preparations yesterday.

"Apart from that, the MIC has also issued a motion for the Permas seat, our traditional seat, asking for cooperation with UMNO in considering this seat to be returned to MIC.

"We will make sure that, whoever the candidate to be fielded, Permas is a stronghold of BN," he told reporters when met at a fresh goods distribution programme by the Permas MIC coordinator, in Taman Cendana, here today.

He said this when asked to comment on the seats that MIC would contest in the polls to be held in the state.

However, he said that the decision on the seat allocation was left to the central MIC and the BN leadership.

He also said that the absence of the Gerakan in BN would give an opportunity to component parties, such as MIC or MCA, to get the Bukit Batu and Pemanis state seats, contested by Gerakan in the last GE14.

"Gerakan no longer exists in Johor, so probably there will be a discussion for the seats to be given to component parties that stand firm with UMNO; maybe MIC or MCA," he said.

-- BERNAMA