This comes as Khalid recently said he would campaign for the Islamist party, who in 2014 stood behind him during the state’s political crisis, when Khalid’s then party PKR moved to replace him as menteri besar.
The seat was won by Khalid Samad for PAS in 2008 and 2013, with comfortable majorities. But he has since joined PAS’ splinter party Amanah, following the divisive PAS muktamar of 2015.
Two-third of the voters in the urban seat are Malays, with an almost equal number of Chinese and Indian voters.
Khalid Ibrahim, who is also the MP for Bandar Tun Razak, has opted to become an independent assemblyman in the Selangor state assembly, following his fallout with PKR in 2014 in the wake of the “Kajang Move”, a strategy to replace him as MB.
Khalid Samad said he was not surprised by talk of the former MB taking him on.
“That is my guess. The opposition had painted a rosy picture of him when he was the Selangor MB and I think Shah Alam will be the targeted seat.
“If he agrees to contest under PAS, definitely Khalid Ibrahim will be offered a seat,” he said.
But it may not be a battle of two Khalids.
There is also speculation that Khalid Ibrahim’s arch enemy in PKR who replaced him as the MB, Mohamed Azmin Ali, could move to Shah Alam from Gombak.
Both had been locked in an intense battle for the PKR deputy president’s post in 2014, which Azmin eventually won.