The Sabah Bersatu chief maintained that his ties with Bung, one of the state’s deputy chief ministers, and other GRS leaders were “very friendly and growing stronger”.

“I will state it clearly, in the presence of Bung here, that we have never fought with each other.

“There has never been any misunderstanding between us, although others claim we are quarreling,” he said at a GRS event last night.

Hajiji, the GRS chairman, said his relationship with other coalition leaders remained strong, based on their common pledge to uphold the mandate given to GRS by the people.

“Although we come from different parties, we remain steadfast to our pledge.

“With that, I hope there will no longer be any talk of Hajiji not being on good terms with Bung, (PBS president) Maximus Ongkili or (STAR president) Jeffrey Kitingan.

“We have less than four years before the next state election. We need to work hard to  bring development and progress to Sabah and the people,” he said, acknowledging that he would not be chief minister without the support of GRS component parties.

This, he said, was why the focus of the parties should be on working for the people and not vying for seats.

“We can resolve this by looking at the respective parties’ strengths. If a party is strong in any area, then the seat will be given to it.”