He said he would rather not comment on the issue and asked for questions to be diverted to Perak DAP chief Nga Kor Ming instead.
This was after Nga told Malaysiakini yesterday that DAP would contest in Sungai Siput, which is held by PSM, following PSM’s “unilateral” decision to contest in DAP seats.
“This is probably a reaction to what has been done by certain parties. This is best handled by Perak DAP and Kor Ming.
“Why don’t you refer that to Kor Ming, let it be handled by him,” Lim told reporters at Komtar here today, adding that the issue was not something that had “come out of the blue”.
Nga had reportedly said DAP contesting in Sungai Siput would allow voters to pick a coalition “capable of replacing Umno and BN”.
PSM is an opposition-friendly party which has been contesting the Sungai Siput seat since 1999.
Incumbent Dr Michael Jeyakumar first contested the seat on a DAP ticket that year, before going under the PKR banner for the next three elections until 2013.
In the 1999 and 2004 elections, Jeyakumar lost his bid for the seat to long-time MIC MP and then-federal minister S Samy Vellu.
In the 2008 general election, Jeyakumar beat Samy. In 2013, he beat MIC’s S K Devamany who was deputy minister at the time.
However, he won with a thin majority of 2,793 votes.
Jeyakumar told FMT yesterday that PKR had wanted him to stand under its banner “a few months ago”, but that he had declined to do so.
He said fielding a Pakatan Harapan candidate as suggested by Nga would only split the opposition vote and “gift the seat to Barisan Nasional”.
Today, PSM central committee member S Arutchelvan reminded DAP that it had lost in the 2004 polls when it took part in a three-cornered fight with PSM and BN.
“When DAP took on PSM in 2004, it only resulted in a BN victory. Therefore, DAP contesting in Sungai Siput will directly help BN,” Arutchelvan said in a statement carried by Malaysiakini.