Tough battle for Selangor on the cards

PETALING JAYA: The battle for Selangor, known as the jewel of the crown, will see a tough and challenging fight between Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH).
In the 2008 General Election, the state fell to the opposition. It retained the state in 2013. In these previous two elections, PKR, DAP and PAS were together in forming the state government.
But in the 14th General Election (GE14), PAS is going to contest in the state on its own, triggering more three-cornered contest, especially in Malay-dominated areas.
BN has been trying to win back the state from the 2008 defeat. Apart from the national level manifesto in 2013, a special manifesto with seven core areas covering housing, education, economy, better infrastructure, new hospital, markets and a vision by the year 2020 for Selangor was revealed.
It also introduced the Selangor People Service Centre to hear the people's grouses and set up Radio Selangor Barisan Nasional to channel its vision for the state.
Zuzaini Ismail, the village head in Kampung Bukit Kuching, Jeram, said preparation for GE14 has been going since early January and people in the constituency are just waiting for the candidate announcement.
"It's going to be tough three-cornered fight here between BN, PAS and PKR," said Zuzaini, who is the PAS committee member in the area.
While saying there was not much complaints about the constituency, he said: "We are unable to do a lot of things for the people here, as the Selangor state government has not given the state assemblymen's allocation."
Jeram is significant because it carries some 45% of the total number of voters in Kuala Selangor. Its voter profile is 82% Malays, 10% Chinese and 8% Indians.
Jeram was taken by BN in the 2013 general election, with Umno candidate defeating PAS who were holding the set in 2004 and 2008 elections.
Malay voters also formed the majority of the electorate in Ijok and Bukit Melawati at 60% and 52%, respectively.
A resident of Bukit Kerayong, Kapar, who only wanted to be known as Rahim said: "The political awareness of youths in Selangor is very high now compared to previous elections. It's a going to be a tough election in Selangor with boundary redelination and registration of high number of young voters in the state."
Early this month, BN chairman Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said component parties must remain united and they must eliminate quarrels among themselves which, according to him, was the cause of BN's failure to recapture the state in the last general election.
"We must assume that an Umno victory is a BN victory, an MCA victory is a BN victory, an MIC victory is a BN victory and any other component party victory is a BN victory, " he said recently.
BN Selangor is expected to launch its manifesto and there are also rumours on the announcement of a possible candidate that will be made the Mentri Besar of the state.
In the 2013 election. Tan Sri Nor Omar who contested the Tanjung Karang parliamentary seat, had a voting population of 42,333 with Malay (72%), Chinese (17%) and Indian (10%). While in certain parts of Selangor also has a high number of Chinese voters.
Among the areas are, Kinara (59%), Seri Kembangan (84%), Rawang (50% and Bukit Gasing (69%).
The higher Chinese populated areas, will most likely only face straight fights compared with Malay dominated areas but the battle remains to be seen on the new strategies taken by all the political parties to win Selangor.