KeADILan deputy president Chandra Muzaffar denied that his party had threatened to withdraw from Barisan Alternatif if it fails to get to contest the Teluk Kemang by-election.

"At no point in the course of the two-hour meeting of the Barisan Alternatif Leaders Council on May 15, did I or any other council member say that if KeADILan is not allowed to fight the seat, KeADILan might withdraw from the BA coalition," he wrote in an email to malaysiakini in respond to yesterday's report "[#1]KeADILan, not DAP, to contest Teluk Kemang[/#]".

According to Chandra, KeADILan has always enjoyed "excellent" relations with the DAP.

"My own personal ties with leaders such as Lim Kit Siang, Chen Man Hin, Ahmad Nor, Karpal Singh, Kerk Kim Hock and Lim Guan Eng, among others, have been nothing less than warm and brotherly," he said.

Chandra stressed that KeADILan, DAP and the other BA parties will cooperate closely, adding that DAP will play a significant role in the upcoming by-election campaign.

"Guidance, advice and strategic planning on the part of DAP campaigners will be critical for the BA candidate's success in Teluk Kemang" he added.

The Teluk Kemang seat fell vacant following the death of the BN's S.A. Anpalagan, who was Health Ministry's parliamentary secretary.

According to the voters records, Teluk Kemang has 66,646 voters, with Malays accounting for about 45.4 percent, Chinese 33.2 percent, Indians 20.6 percent, and others 0.7 percent.

BA will find it hard to wrest the seat as the late Anpalagan won against KeADILan's N. Gopalakrishnan, who ran under the DAP banner, with a majority of 9,942 votes in last November's general elections.

When contacted by malaysiakini, Chandra refused to confirm who KeADILan will field in the by-election.

"You will have to wait for (PAS chief and Opposition Leader) Fadzil Noor to make the official announcement in the next few days," he said.

However, he said "it will be a BA candidate and not a KeADILan representative" who will be contesting the seat.

It has been reported that DAP and KeADILan were at loggerheads over which of the two BA partners had the right to fight the Teluk Kemang seat.

Malaysiakini reported yesterday that a KeADILan candidate will be contesting the seat and it is likely to be the party's Negri Sembilan head and national information chief Ruslan Kassim.

Joining the fray in the by-election is a KeADILan breakaway group Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim), represented by its protem secretary general, P. Uthayakumar. The Barisan Nasional will be fielding a yet-to-be-announced MIC candidate.

On a related matter, Chandra also denied that obtaining the Teluk Kemang seat for KeADILan was a "do-or-die battle" for him because he had allegedly failed to obtain "more seats for KeADILan" in the last general election.

"KeADILan was allocated more parliamentary seats than its BA partners in spite of the fact that it was just seven months old at that time," he said.

At the last November's poll, KeADILan ran in 66 parliament seats, PAS in 59 seats, DAP in 47 seats while PRM stood in four seats.