Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said today PKR committed a mistake by taking in Saifuddin Abdullah, who is a liability to Umno and BN.

"Well, he wanted to leave Umno. God bless him," Tengku Adnan said when responding to a question on the former Umno supreme council member’s defection to PKR.

"I think PKR made a mistake to accept him. He had lost in the Temerloh (parliamentary) seat (during the last general election)," he told Malaysiakini .

"This is not a loss for Umno and BN at all. He has been a liability all the time," he said, adding, however, that Saifuddin is a nice person.

Tengku Adnan also dismissed Saifuddin's previous claim that the people voted against him because of their frustration with Umno.

"Come on. All the rakyat would want a likeable candidate, not just because of their party," said the Umno secretary-general, who is also federal territories minister.

Tengku Adnan added that the former deputy higher education minister's Umno membership was automatically terminated after he joined PKR.

Saifuddin's entry into PKR comes after being slapped with a show-cause letter by Umno for attending an opposition roundtable meeting on Sept 22.

The roundtable meeting resulted in the formation of the new opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan.

His presence at the meeting caused a furore within Umno, with many party leaders condemning him for attending.

Saifuddin defended his move, saying he was there as a representative of the NGO Akademi Belia.

At today's press conference, Saifuddin said the lack of action on the RM2.6 billion deposited into prime minister and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak's private accounts had prompted his defection.

To this, Tengku Adnan said, "He can give all sorts of excuses, but we know how to solve our problem; we don't need other people to comment."

"Even the people of Temerloh don’t want him, so you can take him. We don’t want him. We don’t want all this rubbish in Umno," he was quoted as saying to reporters earlier today.

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