KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Umno’s Khairy Jamaluddin today thanked PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli over the latter’s concern over his future in the party Umno, a report has said.
Khairy, however, kept his focus on winning as the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate in the Selangor seat of Sungai Buloh in the 15th general election (GE15).
“(I want to say) thank you to my good friend who cares about my future. My focus now is to win in Sungai Buloh. That is my duty,” he was quoted as saying by news portal Free Malaysia Today.
This comes after Rafizi was reported by news portal The Vibes as cautioning that there is a high chance that Khairy would be cut off from Umno if BN wins GE15 with his help in bagging the Sungai Buloh seat, as Rafizi said he did not believe Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi would let Khairy progress in the party.
Free Malaysia Today also reported Khairy as saying today that the Sungai Buloh seat is not an easy constituency or an easy campaign, citing the past result for the seat in the 14th general election (GE14) in May 2018.
In GE14, PKR’s Sivarasa Rasiah won the Sungai Buloh seat with 43,631 votes, with a majority of 26,634 votes over PAS candidate Nuridah Mohd Salleh who garnered 16,997 votes. The other candidates were A. Prakash Rao for BN who garnered 16,681 votes, while Zainurizzaman Moharam for Parti Sosialis Malaysia received 642 votes.
PKR has named its deputy information chief (I) Datuk R. Ramanan as its candidate for the Sungai Buloh seat in GE15, instead of fielding Sivarasa again.
Yesterday, national news agency Bernama reported BN deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan as saying that he was sure Khairy would excel in the “very safe seat” of Sungai Buloh which had more than 70 per cent voters being Malay.
Umno deputy president Mohamad had said the Sungai Buloh Umno division welcomes Khairy and it is better for him to go there than somewhere where people do not accept him and was also reported saying Khairy is an outstanding leader with a bright future in the party.
Based on figures from the MyCensus 2020 survey provided by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, Sungai Buloh’s population is predominantly Bumiputera at 71.2 per cent, followed by the Chinese at 20.7 per cent, Indians at 7.6 per cent and the remaining 0.6 per cent in the others category.
Khairy, who is currently the caretaker health minister, was previously the MP for Rembau in Negri Sembilan. In the last general elections, Khairy had won Rembau with 36,096 votes in a three-corner fight, with a 4,364 vote-majority over PKR’s Lieut. Col. Roseli Abdul Gani.
Free Malaysia Today also quoted Khairy as saying politicians go through ups and downs such as not being fielded as a GE15 candidate or being “sent to places such as Sungai Buloh, like me”, but stressed the importance of staying with the political party and continuing their service.
Mohamad himself is contesting for Umno in the Rembau seat in this GE15.
