The love he possessed for Umno and BN prevented Mukhriz Mahathir from dissolving the Kedah state assembly last year, instead of merely relinquishing his post as menteri besar.

Mukhriz believes that if he had decided to dissolve the assembly, BN could have lost the state in the subsequent election.

"People forget that when I stepped down as MB, I had one other choice, which was to dissolve the state assembly. I could have done that. I knew if I had done that… when I was informed that I had lost the 'support' of the assembly by just one vote.

"It was not directly suggested to me that I had to step down. It was implied that I should understand that I had lost the support and I needed to step down.

"So I did the only thing that was honourable. No one talks about this other thing I could've done, that is to dissolve the state assembly. What that would have meant would be a state election, and the thinking at that time was that BN would have lost," Mukhriz told The Malaysian Insight in an interview...