Hishammuddin Hussein believes that a Merdeka Centre poll on him being the favourite for the prime minister's post is an attempt to jeopardise ties with his cousin Najib Abdul Razak.

"Sometime these efforts are only to provoke us, so I won't entertain it," the defence minister told a press conference in Putrajaya.

"It (the issue of becoming PM) does not even arise now, I won't even entertain the question, especially when it is based on a survey," he added.  

The majority or 19.8 percent of respondents in the poll wanted Hishammuddin to succeed Najib.

Citing an "inaccurate" survey in the past, Hishammuddin said he does not put much trust in surveys.

"A similar survey done a few months back during the Umno assembly (showed) that I was not even competent to be a vice-president.

"In a next few months, there is another survey done and I am there to take over as prime minister. Don’t rely too much on surveys," he added.

In the last Umno election, Hishammuddin secured his vice-president post but garnered the lowest votes among the three elected vice-presidents, edging out Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s son Mukhriz by less than 10 votes.

Responding to the same question, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who was the runner-up in the survey, said he shared the same view as Hishammuddin.

According to the survey, 8.6 percent respondents picked the youth and sports minister as the best candidate to take over the helm.

Coming in at third place was Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, with 8.4 percent of the respondents choosing him.