GE14 | Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has promised MIC he will lobby for a Perak exco post for the party if it is able to wrest the Sungkai state seat from DAP.

This was after MIC agreed to surrender the Hutang Melintang state seat to Umno in exchange for Sungkai.

"MIC did not feel slighted […] I will go down to the ground at Sungkai and campaign to help the BN candidate there win.

"I promise if MIC's Sungkai candidate wins, I will put in a request to the Perak sultan and menteri besar for consent to make the winner a state exco," he said.

Zahid said this when visiting the election operations centre of the Parit 13 Umno branch in Hutan Melintang.

Hutan Melintang is one of two state seats under the Bagan Datuk parliamentary constituency of which Zahid is the incumbent. The other state seat is Rungkup.

MIC lost Hutang Melintang to PKR by 1,240 votes in the last general election.

Sungkai is seen as a tougher seat than Hutan Melintang as BN lost Sungkai by a 3,511 votes in the last general election.

Also present during the visit was BN's Rungkup candidate Shahrul Zaman and Hutan Melintang candidate Khairuddin Tarmizi who was accompanied by his wife.

During his visit, Zahid gave Khairuddin and his wife some light-hearted words of advice.

"When you greet people, look at their face. Don't greet and look somewhere else, you may end up as a one-term assemblyperson [...]

"(After you win), don't change car or change to a bigger house or change a 'big' wife for a 'small' wife […] this is my warning," he quipped.

Zahid also urged Khairuddin's wife to support him.

"It's not just the husband. If the husband is good and the wife is arrogant, he will still be kicked out.

"I'm speaking frankly [...] I want both husband and wife to work together [...] the wife's conduct also contributes to the husband's success," advised Zahid.