He said last night that he left Umno with a heavy heart, but did not believe any others would defect.
“There might be rumours about it but to be honest, I don’t think there will be any more crossovers. I am not there to persuade or invite them to join us,” he was quoted as saying by NST Online.
Shahruddin, 60, is a two-term state assemblyman for Jorak and a former political secretary to former Johor Umno strongman Muhyiddin Yassin, who is pro-tem president of PPBM.
His departure from Umno robbed the Barisan Nasional of its two-thirds majority in the state assembly which it had enjoyed since independence.
He said Barisan Nasional would continue to have a “comfortable, safe and good” majority in the state assembly even if he was no longer an assemblyman with the ruling coalition.
He said his membership of Umno was automatically revoked under its constitution when he assumed the position of secretary-general of PPBM.
On July 4, Shahruddin had resigned as vice-chairman of Pagoh’s Umno division, in Muhyiddin’s parliamentary constituency. Muhyiddin announced that PPBM has set up its first division in Pagoh with more than 3,500 members.
RELATED: