The former deputy home minister, who was Pulai MP from 2004 to 2018, took to Facebook in response to a jibe from the human resources minister on his inability to retain the seat in the last general election (GE14).

This was the latest exchange between the two Barisan Nasional (BN) men, which started with Nur Jazlan saying last week that Umno could no longer rely on MIC and MCA to win back Chinese and Indian votes for BN.

Saravanan responded by calling Nur Jazlan “delusional”.

In a Facebook post, Nur Jazlan said he was willing to give others the opportunity to contest in Pulai as he felt he could no longer deliver a BN victory there.

The former three-term Pulai MP added that he had previously invited MCA president Wee Ka Siong and other Umno leaders like Annuar Musa, Shahidan Kassim, Khairy Jamaluddin, Nazri Aziz, and Tajuddin Abdul Rahman to contest the seat. But there was no response from them, he said.

“Therefore, I am honoured to invite the human resources minister (Saravanan) to contest in Pulai, a seat that I see as being racially balanced,” Nur Jazlan said.

“This invitation is in line with the request from the MIC president who wanted (to contest in) 12 parliamentary seats in GE15.

“I am sure Saravanan can secure a win for BN in Pulai given his success in retaining the Tapah parliamentary seat for the third term in GE14.”

Nur Jazlan added that the MIC leader might even be able to get all voters from the Indian community in the constituency to back him, besides regaining the support of Chinese voters and increasing the Malay vote share for BN.

“I am sure he (Saravanan) will be celebrated as a hero, like in the Tamil film ‘Bahubali’, if he wins the seat, and I will salute him as well,” Nur Jazlan said.

Recently, MIC president SA Vigneswaran proposed that the BN leadership allow it to contest 12 parliamentary seats in GE15.

The party president said MIC had a chance of winning the seats, which he said “are not just traditional MIC seats”.