It is the democratic right of a candidate to contest in the party elections and the person should not be pressured to withdraw, said MIC president S Samy Vellu today.

The veteran party leader also directed all divisions and branches to stop asking candidates to contest in next year's polls.

"MIC members are matured enough to know and evaluate the potentials and performance of the contesting candidates and they will give their verdict accordingly," he added in a Bernama report.

On Monday, several MIC leaders, taking the cue from Gerakan's bruising contest for leadership positions, urged deputy president S Subramaniam to vacate his post to pave the way for a smooth leadership transition.

Former senator and Sepang MIC chief C Krishnan said Subramaniam should put party interests above self-interests by bowing out honourably.

Subramaniam, who was denied a parliamentary seat in last year's general election had announced he would defend his post in the party polls slotted for June next year.

He also dismissed rumours that he would go for broke and challenge the president.

New deputy

Last week, Samy Vellu, who is also works minister, said he wanted a new deputy who could work with him to implement party policies and programmes.

Subramaniam once crossed swords with Samy Vellu for the president's post in 1989 but failed to unseat him.

He was made a senator after the MIC supremo chose not to field him as a candidate in the 1990 general election.

In the following year, both of them made peace and since then Subramaniam had been winning the No 2 post unopposed in subsequent party elections.

He contested in the 1995 general election for the Segamat parliamentary seat but was dropped from the 2004 general election.

Party vice-president G Palanivel had recently announced his decision to vie for the deputy president's post.

In the past month, there have been contests for the top posts in two Barisan Nasional component parties, MCA and Gerakan.