Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s hopes of being given a free ride in his latest bid to win the Kajang by-election were immediately dashed when BN indicated that they will put up a candidate there.

This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and BN deputy chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin, who was quoted in The Star as saying that wherever there was a vacant seat, BN will put up a candidate.

“I just heard about the vacancy in the Kajang state seat. We usually wait for an announcement from the Election Commission (EC). This may have already occurred and if that’s the case, then as usual, we will put up a candidate.

“It does not matter who the opposition candidate is,” said Muhyiddin in Putrajaya today, adding that the Kajang seat is an MCA area and a final decision on the candidate would be made after the EC announcement.

The BN deputy chairperson said that if Anwar is interested in becoming an assemblyperson, that is all right.

“If he has a bigger plan, I wouldn’t know what it is. I wouldn’t be able to predict what his plan is,” the deputy premier was quoted to have said.

At the PKR headquarters press conference this morning, Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim had announced Anwar as its candidate for Kajang.

The PKR de facto leader had expressed hope that BN would not contest there so as to “let PKR continue to do their work” in Selangor.

Already, PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvam has indicated that the party is considering to contest in Kajang as it had previously contested in Semenyih, which is next door.

Sankara's former aide interested

In a related development, lawyer Sankara Nair’s former legal assistant S Yuktes Vijay is also reported in the daily as being interested in contesting in Kajang against Anwar as an Independent.

Sankara has appeared as counsel for Anwar in the first and second sodomy trial.

“It wasn’t a hard decision to run against Anwar. Even if he was not a former idol of mine, I would do it - this is all stupid politicking,” said the 25-year-old as quoted by the daily.

The Kajang state seat became vacant following the resignation of incumbent Lee Chin Cheh. The EC will meet on Feb 5 to decide the nomination and polling date.