KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 ― Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor denied today that Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir was kicked out of the party’s supreme council meeting, saying the Kedah mentri besar was merely not invited to the meeting.
He claimed Mukhriz had been informed through a phone call that his presence was not needed at today's meeting, a decision by the supreme council.
"He wasn't invited...I told him on the phone," Tengku Adnan said briefly at a press conference held after Umno’s top leadership met.
"He is a supreme council member (so he knows). The supreme council decided that he doesn't have to come. That's all there is to it," he added.
Earlier today, Mukhriz said he was told to leave the meeting less than an hour after he arrived.
The embattled Kedah mentri besar, who is also the son of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, told reporters as he was leaving the Umno headquarters here that Tengku Adnan had instructed him to leave.
Najib denied today rumours that the Kedah Regency Council had rejected the list of candidates to replace Mukhriz, the strongest indication yet that Mukhriz would be ousted soon after Kedah Umno deputy chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah led a delegation of state Umno leaders to express their loss of confidence in the Kedah MB.
