KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 20): MIC president Datuk Seri G Palanivel on Thursday dismissed the influence of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) among Indian Malaysians whom he said are now backing the Barisan Nasional government.

"The Indian votes are coming back to BN. It is not like 2008 when they deserted us. I know this from the feel on the ground.

"The prime minister is doing a good job and so are the other (BN) component parties," Palanivel told reporters at the official launch of Velicham, a Tamil-language news portal which began operations in July last year.

He was asked to comment on the threat posed by Hindraf leader P Waythamoorthy, who returned to Malaysia last month after a five-year self-imposed exile.

"Waythamoorthy, well he can be an influential leader but he is not a threat," said Palanivel, who is also a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

"The past will never come back. We are only thinking of a new future," he added.

Hindraf, which organised a mammoth street rally in the nation's capital prior to the 2008 general election, to highlight the plight faced by the Indian community, had played a major role in denying BN its two-thirds parliamentary majority.

MIC itself was nearly wiped out with its two top leaders - Palanivel and his predecessor Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu - both being defeated in constituencies they had held for more than a decade.

But Hindraf has since suffered a series of setbacks after five of its leaders were detained under the Internal Security Act, while Waythamoorthy fled the country fearing a similar fate.

Meanwhile, Palanivel said he would only decide on the seat he would be contesting in the coming general election “at the last hour”.

There has been speculation that he would be going for the relatively safe seat of Cameron Highlands this time around.

But the party chief said MIC is still in the midst of finalising the list of prospective candidates for the nine parliamentary and 19 state seats it would be contesting.