Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir is seen leaving the Putra World Trade Centre where the Umno supreme council meeting was being held Jan 29, 2016. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir has been told to leave today’s Umno supreme council meeting less than an hour after he arrived, strengthening speculation that his days as Kedah mentri besar may be over.
Mukhriz told reporters as he was leaving the Umno headquarters here that party secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had instructed him to leave the party top leadership’s meeting.
The embattled Kedah mentri besar did not explain why he was told to leave.
“He said those who weren’t invited [were] to leave. I think that was directed to me,” he told reporters at the Putra World Trade Centre here.
It is uncertain if Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was present when Mukhriz was booted out, but some of those close to him were heard saying that the situation was tense when the incident took place.
Mukhriz arrived at PWTC close to 3pm. He left the meeting at about 3.50pm. Najib arrived not long after Mukhriz.
The incident came amid strong talks that the top Umno leadership is set to replace him as Kedah MB and that the replacement candidate had already been identified.
Speculation is rife that his removal would be discussed in today’s supreme council meeting among others.
When met earlier today, the youngest son of former prime minister and Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he had no information about his possible removal.
Najib reportedly met the Kedah Regency Council this morning over the Kedah mentri besar fiasco.
Last week, Kedah Umno deputy chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah led a delegation of 14 Umno division chiefs, state and federal lawmakers to express their loss of confidence in Mukhriz.
Among the reasons given for their discontent was Mukhriz’s purported failure to govern the state, to unite the party and his lack of strategy to face the next general elections due in 2018.
Both Mukhriz and Ahmad Bashah have since met with Najib separately, but the Umno president has yet to announce any decision on the matter.
Najib is scheduled to speak to the press soon
