JOHOR BARU: It seems Perikatan Nasional will not field businessman JR Deepak Jaikishan in Pulai parliament seat in the 15th General Election (GE15) despite announcing the latter’s candidacy on Tuesday (Nov 1) night.
Johor Gerakan chairman Datuk Teo Kok Chee said that party president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau has named someone else to contest for Gerakan under the Perikatan banner in the Pulai parliamentary election.
"It will be a local candidate contesting the Pulai parliament seat. The decision to change our candidate was made soon after the announcement of Perikatan candidates by our chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Tuesday (Nov 1) night.
"Johor Gerakan was not informed about his candidacy as all matters have been decided by Perikatan central leadership prior to the announcement," he said when contacted by The Star here on Wednesday (Nov 2).
According to a source, Gerakan was in the dark about Deepak’s candidacy in Pulai parliamentary as the latter just joined the party.
On Tuesday night, Perikatan announced an ambitious move for 169 parliamentary seats in its first national polls.
One of the candidates announced was Deepak, who was a former associate to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, where he was slated to contest in Pulai parliamentary under Gerakan ticket.
Deepak, who owned a carpet business, became a well-known figure in local politics after claiming both Najib and Rosmah were involved in the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.
He had also sued Najib and Rosmah over an alleged conspiracy that he claimed led to him suffering losses.
However, his case was thrown out by the Court of Appeal on Oct 8.
