KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) wants to reclaim the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat from Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the upcoming polls.
Its deputy president, S. Arutchelvan, said the party's chairman, Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, was expected to contest in the seat during the 15th General Election (GE15).
Arutchelvan also said PH had not responded to PSM's application to join the former's electoral pact in the elections since both parties last met on Sept 30.
"Nevertheless, PSM has put forward a very reasonable and minimum request to PH.
"Besides agreeing to use a common logo, we have asked to contest in the Sungai Siput parliament seat for the PSM chairman while the other seats requested were seats that are not incumbent seats of the current four PH component parties," he said in a statement.
Until the 2008 general elections, Sungai Siput was a traditional MIC fortress held by the party's former supremo Tun S. Samy Vellu for eight consecutive terms since 1974.
In 2008, Jeyakumar wrested the seat from Samy Vellu in his third attempt since the 1999 general elections.
In the 2018 general elections, PKR's Kesavan Subramaniam defeated Jeyakumar and took over the seat.
MIC president Tan Sri S.A. Vigneswaran had, on Monday, stated his intentions to contest in Sungai Siput and bring the seat back into the party's fold.
Meanwhile, Arutchelvan said PSM would conduct a training workshop for its shortlisted election candidates and campaign managers this Saturday.
"On Oct 17, in conjunction with the International day to Eradicate Poverty, the Marhaen coalition and sectors will also put forward their grassroots election demands to all the political parties contesting," he added.
A party source told the New Straits Times that PSM and Muda's application to join PH's electoral pact for GE15 will be among the matters discussed by the PH presidential council during its meeting tomorrow.