Saifuddin, who is chairman of the Kedah state development committee, said that the additional responsibility entrusted to him by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim requires him to travel to Kedah every week to oversee the progress of federal projects in the state.

Among the projects are construction of water treatment plants so that Kedahans’ water woes would be resolved, he told an election ceramah here.

“Why did the prime minister appoint me to do this (overseeing projects)? Because the menteri besar does not do these works,” he said.

“This state does not have much resources and has no budget to build water treatment plants. The federal government provides the funds and yet he mocks (the government).

“If he does not know how to be thankful to the federal government that helps in providing funds, he will never be thankful to Kedahans. We need to reject people like this and let the unity coalition take over the (state) government,” he said while campaigning for PH candidate Shamsul Anuar Abdullah of PKR.

Shamsul Anuar is in a five-cornered contest in Lunas against Perikatan Nasional’s Khairul Anuar Ramli and independent candidates N Rajendran, S Pannir Selvam and S Arinchindarem.

The seat has been held by PKR since 2008, until it lost the seat in 2020 when assemblyman Azman Nasrudin defected to Bersatu.