SHAH ALAM - Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali may depart from the Gombak parliamentary seat after helming it for the past three terms for Shah Alam.
Sources told Sinar Daily that the former Selangor Menteri Besar has received the green light to contest in the Pas-cum-Amanah traditional seat for the 15th General Election (GE15) by the Perikatan Nasional (PN) Supreme Council.
Azmin’s move will not come without its challenges as he could be landing into a four-cornered fight.
The Bersatu Supreme Council member will be up against the seat’s incumbent Khalid Samad’s successor Azli Yusof from Amanah, a lawyer from Pejuang and most likely an Umno candidate from Barisan Nasional (BN).
PN insiders said Pas had requested to contest the seat and had even finalised two names - Ahmad Dusuki Rani as proposed by Dewan Ulama Pas Selangor, and Mohd Fuad Mohd Salleh, who is Pas Selangor deputy commissioner III.
"Once Azmin’s name was listed, Pas took a step back knowing that as a former MB, he had a bigger chance of winning in Shah Alam.
"Another name that was mentioned to contest in Shah Alam is Seberang Jaya assemblyman Dr Afif Bahardin, but Pas would have never allowed it.
"For Shah Alam, it’s either Azmin or Pas,” a source said.
Dr Afif has been rather active on the ground in Shah Alam that created the notion that he was campaigning to wrestle the seat from Khalid.
The source said Dr Afif was actually laying the seeds for Azmin to enter via their non-governmental organisation Penggerak Komuniti Negara.
Another source said Dr Afif was still not strong enough to "suddenly” jump from a Penang state seat to a major parliamentary seat such as Shah Alam.
He however said Azmin has not officially 100 per cent given up the Gombak seat for now in a bid to ensure he has a safety net incase things go south.
"Azmin has been eyeing Shah Alam for the past few years already but this time around he is not too confident to win Gombak.
"As a former Selangor MB, he believes that there is still a fragment of support left for him based on the things he had contributed to the state,” he said.
The source said Khalid’s jump to the Titiwangsa parliamentary seat, gave Azmin an added confidence boost seeing that there will be no major contender.
"I have been in Shah Alam for three terms, I feel we should make way for a younger candidate... trying to develop our second-liners to take over, we have many that are capable and served as local councillors and political secretary,” Khalid was quoted saying in an interview on Sinar Daily’s Politically Frank episode.
Will Azmin make the jump? We’ll just have to wait and see.