PKR members would be better off voting for an honest leader like Rafizi Ramli instead of someone like Mohamed Azmin Ali, whose "personal agenda overrides the party’s interests", said its central leadership council member Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid.

The party needed a leader whose vision was in line with its president-elect Anwar Ibrahim’s reform agenda, instead of someone whose loyalty is with those “who are in power", the Kapar MP was quoted as saying in an interview by the Malay Mail.

“We do not want a repeat of the crisis in Selangor [in 2014] to happen on a federal level,” said Abdullah Sani, who is defending his central leadership council member post.

Revisiting the 2014 Kajang move, a political plan to topple the then Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, he pointed out how Azmin was appointed as the state menteri besar despite not being initially nominated by the party.

“Back then, we had a declaration of support by the majority of state lawmakers that Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail would be the menteri besar. But somehow PAS nominated Azmin and his name was brought to the palace without the blessings of the party,” he said.

Azmin had in the past put his own agenda first instead of PKR's or Pakatan Harapan’s, and his courtship of PAS prior to the May 9 general election was a proof of this, Abdullah Sani said.

“Pakatan Rakyat did not want to work together with PAS, but he still wanted an alliance with PAS. He only stopped approaching them when GE14 was announced.

“At the time, he put Selangor ahead of the coalition,” said the staunch supporter of Rafizi (photo).

While Rafizi, on the other hand, is a leader who has sacrificed everything for PKR, and was instrumental in the party winning many marginal seats in GE14, according to Abdullah Sani.

“Rafizi has put the party’s interests in the forefront, and even his family second. He has proven his loyalty to Anwar and the party,” Abdullah Sani said.

Abdullah Sani had in last month apologised to the Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for alleging the premier and his advisor Daim Zainuddin were conspiring to prevent Anwar from becoming the next prime minister.

He also claimed that the pair was colluding with Azmin.

The upcoming PKR poll sees the escalating internal fight between Rafizi, who has assembled a strong team, and Azmin, who is backed by several PKR ministers, including Zuraida Kamaruddin and A Xavier Jayakumar.

Rafizi is challenging incumbent Azmin for the deputy presidency post.

Some 800,000 PKR members will vote in the elections from September 14 to October 13.

Anwar won the presidency uncontested when nomination closed on Aug 5 after his wife, and the incumbent president, Wan Azizah, gave way.