IPOH, Sept 16 — Cheong Chee Khing is tickled to find himself at the centre of a purported adultery scandal, which he dismissed as pure fabrication due to the upcoming Perak DAP state election next month.

The political secretary to Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran does not discount the possibility that an allegation that he was having an extra marital affair accompanied by a picture of the other woman circulating on social media platforms was created by party rivals.

Cheong told Malay Mail that it was not the first time he has been made a target of lies. He strongly suspects the allegation to be related to the coming state DAP poll on October 14.

“Last year, a woman lodged a police report accusing me of robbing her. She retracted the report after I lodged a counter report against her.

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“But this is what happens to Team B people,” he said, inadvertently confirming talk of a wide rift within the Perak DAP leadership.

For years, the Perak DAP has been rumoured to be divided into two camps. One purportedly belonging to state party chairman Nga Kor Ming and his cousin Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham who is also Perak DAP adviser. Nga is also Teluk Intan MP and deputy Dewan Rakyat speaker while Ngeh is Beruas MP and Perak assembly speaker.

The other faction — or Team B as Cheong calls it — is supposedly led by Kulasegaran and Kampar MP Thomas Su.

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Cheong said he thought he would be left alone after being dropped from defending his Bercham state seat during the 14th general election.

“Looks like they would not leave me alone,” he added, but declined to elaborate on whom he was referring to.

Instead, he made light of the latest gossip surrounding him and said those who doctored the pictures in the social media posts could have given him more hair.

In the viral post, written in a mix of Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia, a woman claiming to be Cheong’s wife warned other women not to approach him.

“Today, I want to give a reminded to all the women who want to approach my husband.

“I am used to such a situation. To all the women, don’t hope that my husband will divorce me to be with you,” the post said.

Cheong disclosed that the woman whose image was superimposed into the picture that has since gone viral is aware of the situation and will be returning from abroad soon to file a police report on the matter.

“She is angry that she is being dragged into the matter,” he said.

Cheong who has been married for nearly 30 years said his wife trusts him fully, when asked her reaction to the affair scandal.

“She knows these are all politics,” he said.

* Editor's note: A previous version of this article erroneously reported Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham as Sitiawan assemblyman.  The article has since been corrected.