Kuala Lumpur, June 13 (IANS) Yet another controversy has hit the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) polls with the party's incumbent deputy president S. Subramaniam alleging that delegates have been warned against voting for him.

According to reports here, Subramaniam has written a letter to the party's election steering committee alleging that delegates have been promised 'rewards' if they could produce evidence they had voted for a particular candidate.

The MIC is the leading political party representing the Indian community in Malaysia. Ethnic Indians comprise seven percent of the country's population of over 24 million.

The party's elections are scheduled for June 24 and the nominations were filed June 4.

The intra-party elections have come under intense scrutiny ever since party supremo Seri S. Samy Vellu announced his list of favoured candidates for the various posts.

Vellu has named G. Palanivel, Malaysia's deputy minister for women, family and community development, as his favoured candidate for the party deputy president's post. Subramaniam, an MIC veteran, has been holding this post for 22 years now and will again defend it in these elections.

The nomination day also saw tension brewing between supporters of rival candidates. Palanivel is leading Subramaniam by a huge margin in terms of nominations.

In his letter, Subramaniam has said that overhead cameras would record which candidate delegates would vote for.

"They (the delegates) were told that those who vote for me could be identified," a report in the New Straits Times newspaper quoted Subramaniam as stating in the letter. He added that delegates were told to bring cameras or camera-phones into polling booths to take pictures of their marked ballot papers.

According to the report, election committee chairman K. Vijayanathan has confirmed receiving the letter from Subramaniam.

However, Vijayanathan was quoted as saying that there was no truth in the allegations.

"No way can a camera be fitted in an election area," he told the newspaper. "Telephones are also barred from voting areas or during the counting of votes."