Boo was responding to comments by party veteran Lim Kit Siang criticising him for “concocting baseless stories” over the issue.

In a statement, he said there was lobbying by a small faction in the party at a Zoom meeting among “MPs, former ministers and grassroots” in DAP.

He said some wanted Anwar Ibrahim dropped as a prime ministerial candidate and opted for Mahathir instead.

According to Boo, the Zoom meeting was originally intended to “improve communications” with the DAP grassroots.

“Their comments keep going against the PH presidential council’s decision to back Anwar as the coalition’s only prime ministerial choice. They also criticised Anwar without sound basis, and this has destabilised our grassroots.

“As a result, the grassroots are largely confused as to who would be leading us towards GE15,” he said.

Boo said that during the Zoom meeting, he raised his voice and “condemned a former minister” for pushing for Mahathir, as Mahathir was the cause of the PH government’s downfall last year.

He said there had been voices in DAP calling for Anwar to step down as opposition leader as they were eager to return to power and were now cosying up to Mahathir instead.

“We shall stand by them (PKR) and Anwar at this most difficult time, especially when there has been an orchestrated systematic effort to undermine PKR,” he said.