Sungai Buloh is toughest fight in my political career - Khairy

SUNGAI BULOH: Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said he would be facing the toughest fight in his political career in a seven-cornered contest for the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat.

However, the three-term Rembau Member of Parliament (MP) is not taking it as a disadvantage, but as a challenge to bring Barisan Nasional's fight to the urban area.

"I won three elections in a row in Rembau, now I have come to a constituency we had lost in three elections in a row. But I am up for the challenge and hope that the Sungai Buloh people will give me a chance.

"I hope to serve the people of Sungai Buloh and that they will enable me to serve the country," he told reporters after filing his nomination papers at Dewan Kenanga, Petaling District and Land Office, here, today.

Asked on the speculation that it could be the end of his political career in case he lost, Khairy, who is popularly known as KJ, said: "I am not ready to go yet."

Meanwhile, on the three-term Sungai Buloh incumbent MP, R. Sivarasa's comment that a vote to "Khairy means a vote to UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi", Khairy said that "one vote to KJ in Sungai Buloh is a vote to KJ."

"This narrative must be explained right now that the candidate for the post of prime minister is Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. I will support him as the candidate for the post as announced by Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid himself; no confusion there," he said.

Khairy, a former UMNO Youth chief, is being challenged by Pakatan Harapan's (PH) Datuk R. Ramanan in PKR's effort to retain the seat for four consecutive times, and Perikatan Nasional's (PN) Mohd Ghazali Md Hamin from PAS.

The other contenders are Mohd Akmal Mohd Yusoff of Pejuang, Parti Rakyat Malaysia's (PRM) Ahmad Jufliz Faiza and two independent candidates, Nurhaslinda Basri and Syed Abdul Razak Syed Long Alsagoff, who caught some attention with his Phua Chu Kang boots in the popular TV series in Singapore and Malaysia.

In 2018, Sivarasa of PKR won the seat with a majority of 26,634 votes. He is not defending the seat for health reasons.

According to returning officer, Mohd Jusni Hashim, there are 158,090 voters in the constituency.

-- BERNAMA