KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged Pakatan Harapan supporters in Batu to give their solid support to its candidate P. Prabakaran in the 15th General Election.

The Pakatan chairman and PKR president said that he is hoping to see a larger majority for the seat.

“Tian Chua (former PKR vice-president), let him be, there are posters of him here and there…but we want you to vote for Prabakaran,” he said in his speech at Padang Taman Dato’ Senu on Tuesday (Nov 15).

The 10-cornered fight in Batu turned bitter when Tian Chua decided to contest independently against his party’s will to wrest the seat from incumbent, Prabakaran.

Tian Chua previously served as Batu MP for two terms between 2008 and 2018, and secured both victories under the PKR ticket.

However, he was disqualified from defending the Batu seat in 2018 due to a RM2,000 fine imposed on him by the Shah Alam High Court.

Consequently, Tian Chua and PKR threw their support behind Prabakaran, who contested as an independent candidate, leading the latter to win Batu by 13,687 votes in 2018. Prabakaran later formally joined PKR.

On a separate matter, Anwar pledged that he will build more low cost housing should Pakatan manage to form the Federal Government after the general election.

He said that his plans to build more housing in Batu had failed to be implemented once there was a change of government.