“I have never asked his advice… My friends and I know how to manage our party,” Malaysiakini quoted him as saying at a press conference in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, this afternoon.
The report said Zahid, who is running for president in the upcoming Umno general assembly, declined to elaborate on what was discussed during the closed-door meeting with Mahathir on June 7.
Mahathir, however, had said a day after the meeting that Zahid had sought pointers on how to run the party.
Earlier today, former Umno leader Khairuddin Abu Hassan claimed Zahid had pleaded with him to arrange that meeting with Mahathir, and that it was not Mahathir who had requested the meeting as claimed by Zahid.
“After he pleaded with me to meet Mahathir, I arranged for him to meet the prime minister,” he said.
Khairuddin also rejected Zahid’s claim during a speech to Selangor Umno members yesterday that Mahathir had asked Umno members to join PPBM.
“He (Zahid) is a liar. Every word he utters is a lie,” said Khairuddin, who was among the pioneer batch of Umno members who left the party at the height of the 1MDB exposure in 2015 to form PPBM.
Zahid begged me to arrange ‘Ramadan’ meeting with Dr M, says Khairuddin