GE14 | The parliamentary seat of Indera Mahkota is set to see a repeat of the closely fought battle between Pakatan Harapan chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah and PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan witnessed in Temerloh during the last election.

In the 13th general election, Saifuddin was the incumbent Temerloh MP and deputy education minister facing a challenge from Nasrudin from PAS, part of Pakatan Rakyat at the time.

Saifuddin was narrowly defeated by 1,070 votes. He garnered 27,197 votes, while Nasrudin received 28,267.

The political scenario has since changed dramatically, with both Saifuddin and Nasrudin in different coalitions, but their fates are set to clash again.

Saifuddin was always known as a maverick in Umno, often expressing a more liberal stance compared to his colleagues.

Three months after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak purged critics questioning him about the multi-billion ringgit deposits in his personal account and the 1MDB scandal, Saifuddin joined PKR.

He became a key figure in putting together Pakatan Harapan, the successor coalition to Pakatan Rakyat, which disintegrated after a split with PAS.

PAS now leads Gagasan Sejahtera, an alternative opposition coalition, and is set to clash with Harapan and BN.

Saifuddin is widely tipped to contest in Indera Mahkota, and had last month worked the ground in the constituency.

He is expected to replace incumbent PKR MP Fauzi Abdul Rahman, who will likely move to a state seat in Pahang.

However, even before Harapan formally unveiled Saifuddin as its candidate for Indera Mahkota, PAS last night moved to pre-empt his candidacy.

Nasrudin unveiled

At a ceramah in Kuantan last night, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang named Nasrudin as PAS' candidate for Indera Mahkota.

"Even though we have told the media that we will only announce our candidates nationwide on April 19, but I would like to make an exception for Indera Mahkota.

"I would like to announce that the candidate representing PAS for Indera Mahkota is Nasrudin Hassan.

"They (our opponents) have announced a few candidates, so we announce too, this is our first," he said.

Hadi explained that Nasrudin was being moved from Temerloh as he now resides in Indera Mahkota.

"PAS will still contest Temerloh, but we'll put someone else there," he said.

In the last general election, PKR won Indera Mahkota with a 7,523-vote majority, having garnered 30,584 votes against Umno's 23,061.