Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali quipped that he is prepared to replace opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim if he has the support of journalists.

Azmin said this when asked to respond to academician Prof Jayum Jayam ( right ) who said yesterday that the PKR deputy president is the best candidate to replace his boss, who is " nearing extinction ".

Azmin, who was tickled by the question, then asked the journalists if they agreed to him taking over the helm.

"You don't agree?" he questioned.

"If you support me, I am okay (with replacing Anwar)," he added on the sidelines of an event in Shah Alam this morning.

Azmin has been with Anwar since the PKR de facto leader was deputy prime minister, serving as his political secretary then.

Azmin became the menteri besar after protracted crisis over the post, which was initially supposed to go to Anwar via an engineered by-election for the Kajang seat.

Following his conviction over a sodomy charge, Anwar’s wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also PKR president, contested and won the seat.

She was then nominated to become menteri besar but this encountered problems from the palace.