He said this was one of the reasons why he decided to declare his support for Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari, while remaining a Bersatu member, Utusan Malaysia reported.

Rashid, the former Selangor Bersatu chief who was given the responsibility of identifying candidates for last year’s state polls, revealed that his recommendations were largely disregarded.

“Before the state elections last year, the Bersatu president (Muhyiddin Yassin) asked me to nominate a few names for the elections,” he was quoted as saying.

“But more than half of the names of division chiefs I suggested were rejected, because there was a ‘cartel’ wanting to bring in their own people as candidates.”

According to Rashid, this resulted in the inclusion of “parachute candidates” who had only joined the party last year.

“They won by slim majorities, but I believe that the division chiefs could have won by a larger majority if they had contested instead,” he said.

Rashid also dismissed suggestions that his decision stemmed from being dropped as Selangor Bersatu chief.

Instead, he said he felt dispensable to the party despite dedicating nine years of hard work to build up the state chapter.

Last Wednesday, Rashid declared his support for Amirudin, adding that his decision to back the Pakatan Harapan-led state government was voluntary.

The former state executive councillor was also reported to have said that he was prompted to support Amirudin after going through the Selangor sultan’s speech when opening the state assembly session, where the Ruler praised the state administration for being on the right track.