Tajuddin, who is serving his six-year suspension from Umno, accused Ahmad of failing to advise party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi well.

He claimed that Ahmad, who is now an Umno Supreme Council member, only listened to certain “people” he had around him, but failed to heed the voice of the grassroots.

Tajuddin said many of the grassroots members did not want the candidates that the leadership had selected for the 15th general election (GE15).

“(The grassroots) told the party but Ahmad didn’t want to listen.

“They wanted a candidate who was local, but the party still selected an ‘outsider’,” he told reporters at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur today.

He claimed that grassroots members protested over this, with many of them voting against Umno. “So who is on the losing end here?”

Umno only won 26 parliamentary seats in GE15, marking its lowest-ever representation in the Dewan Rakyat.

Tajuddin was suspended for six years last October, after being removed as an Umno Supreme Council member in June 2022.

A few days after his removal from the Supreme Council, he launched a scathing attack against Zahid and urged him to step down as Umno president.

He accused Zahid of making decisions for the party unilaterally, saying members of the Supreme Council – the highest decision-making body in Umno – simply went along with his decisions.

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