KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Perak PKR denied rumours today that its elected representative for the Hutan Melintang state seat, S. Kesavan, has quit the party.
State party vice-chairman Chang Lih Kang told The Malay Mail Online he had spoken to Kesavan and the latter was himself surprised to hear reports of his alleged resignation.
“I just got off the phone with him 15 minutes ago. He has not quit the party,” the Teja assemblyman said when contacted this afternoon.
In a separate statement later, PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil confirmed that Kesavan is still a party member.
He said the assemblyman has been advised to lodge a police report on the incident.
Both Chang and Fahmi were responding to a report on The Star Online earlier today, which featured a photographed copy of Kesavan's alleged resignation letter to the Perak assembly speaker.
The letter, now verified as fake, also sports the assemblyman's name and a signature.
Earlier in its report, the news portal had also written that Kesavan's reason for quitting PKR was due to a “loss of faith in and dissatisfaction with the party leadership”.
Barisan Nasional (BN) has tenuous control of Perak with 31 seats and a mere three-seat majority to Pakatan Rakyat's (PR) 28 seats in the 59-seat state legislative assembly.
In the previous 2008 general election, the roles were reversed and the sudden resignations of three Perak PR assemblymen saw Perak fall back to BN's hands, resulting in a year-long political crisis.
