With his brother Shahrir Samad making a U-turn from an earlier announcement that he would not contest in GE14, rumours naturally started circulating that they would face off for Shahrir’s Johor Baru seat.
However, Khalid has dimissed such talk, telling The Star that it would not please their mother.
“No, I wouldn’t want to go against him. This would just break my mother’s heart,” Khalid was quoted as saying by the daily.
His comments contradicted that of Shahrir’s though, who was reported to have said last week that he is willing to face any one Pakatan Harapan puts up against him in Johor Baru, including his brother.
While Shahrir has been Johor Baru MP since 1978, that is eight terms altogether, Khalid is a two-term MP, having won the Shah Alam parliamentary seat in the last two general elections, in 2008 and 2013, as a PAS member.
He and other leaders left the Islamist party shortly after the party’s elections in 2015.
Khalid, said that he was not worried about being moved to Johor or being dubbed a “parachute candidate”, as he has similar roots to Shahrir, with their parents being from Muar.
A “parachute candidate” is defined as one who is from another state or outside the area he or she currently resides in, hence may have little connection with the constituents.
It was reported last week that Khalid was willing to give up his seat to Mat Sabu, as he understood it was important for the party president to contest in a seat that was deemed to be “safe”, such as Shah Alam, which has a good mix of Malay and non-Malay constituents.