ALOR SETAR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir will remain as Kedah Menteri Besar despite his party leaving the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition earlier this week.

Mr Mukhriz said the Kedah Ruler has accepted the letters of support for him to continue helming the northern Malaysian state.

"I had an audience with the Sultan and briefed him about the current situation and submitted the support letters of 18 assemblymen for me to remain as Menteri Besar.

"The Kedah government now consists of PPBM (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia) and Pakatan Harapan. It's business as usual," he said at a press conference on Thursday (Feb 27).

He said the Sultan had accepted the letters and that PH and PPBM reps agreed to maintain status quo of the present Kedah government.

Mr Mukhriz also urged the people to remain calm, as Kedah was not affected by the current political upheaval.

The ongoing crisis was sparked when leaders of the PH coalition, including those from Mr Mukhriz's own PPBM, decided to join hands with opposition parties to call for prime minister Mahathir Mohamad to stay in power until the next election instead of handing over power midterm to Parti Keadilan Rakyat president Anwar Ibrahim as agreed prior to PH winning the May 2018 election.

This led to the collapse of the ruling coalition and days of frenzied horse-trading, as different sides try to cobble together the 112 lawmakers needed to form a majority in Parliament.

Amid the chaos, Tun Dr Mahathir, who is Mr Mukhriz's father, resigned, only to be appointed interim Prime Minister by Malaysia's King.