Malaysia GE: Khairy says he had to look for seat to contest, after Zahid left him out in the cold

SUNGAI BULOH - Incumbent Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin on Wednesday refuted comments by his party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that it was Mr Khairy who had requested to

contest in Sungai Buloh

, an opposition stronghold in Selangor state.

Mr Khairy said he “had to do something on his own” to find a parliamentary seat to contest after he learnt that he would not be defending his Rembau seat in Negeri Sembilan in the Nov 19 Malaysian polls.

“In reality, I didn’t have any other choice because the party leadership didn’t give any indication to me where I should go (to contest in),” said the 46-year old Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate.

“I was left alone and knew I had to leave the Rembau seat. I took my own initiative to meet Selangor Umno chairman Tan Sri Noh Omar and MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran,” he told reporters after attending an event in the Sungai Buloh constituency. The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a member of the four-party BN coalition, traditionally puts up its candidate to contest in the ward.

Mr Khairy said this when asked to comment on what was said by Umno president and BN chairman Zahid.

Zahid, when asked by reporters on Wednesday why Mr Khairy, or KJ, was fielded in a ward won by the opposition in the last three general election, said: “KJ asked to be given the opportunity to contest there and I fulfilled his request.”

But Mr Khairy said on Thursday: “There were signals from the party leadership and I was not invited to any seat discussions. Nomination day was approaching and I had to do something for myself.”

He said he chose Sungai Buloh after being told there were only two or three parliamentary seats left as options at that point.

Mr Khairy, the three-term Member of Parliament for Rembau, declined to comment further, saying he did not want to quarrel with Zahid and would work on winning Sungai Buloh for BN.

Mr Khairy was forced to leave the safe seat of Rembau - which he had won in the last three polls - after Umno’s deputy president Mohamed Hassan, who is also the Umno division chief for Rembau, insisted on being fielded in the ward. Datuk Seri Mohamed is an ally of Zahid.

Zahid, as BN chairman, has the power to decide whom to field for the general election. He dropped four Cabinet ministers and three deputy ministers in the previous administration from contesting in the 2022 general election.

These seven ex-MPs, like Mr Khairy, had in February 2020 gone against Zahid’s stance by agreeing to form a government with rival lawmakers led by Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, following the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.

In Sungai Buloh, Mr Khairy is being challenged by PH’s Datuk R. Ramanan and Perikatan Nasional’s Mohd Ghazali Md Hamin. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK