PHOTOS of Dr Mahathir Mohamad meeting Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan and a few MPs which have gone viral on social media are old pictures and have nothing to do with talk of more lawmakers leaving the party, its number two said.

Mohamad told The Malaysian Insight those photos were taken in September when he and a few others visited the prime minister in a bid to prevent Umno’s deregistration.

“Photos of that meeting have nothing to do with MPs leaving the party or with news of Sabah lawmakers leaving the party yesterday.

“Those photos were taken in September. We had sought a meeting with Tun Mahathir to prevent Umno’s deregistration as we had heard of talk then that the party might be deregistered.”

He said he would never leave Umno, which is now down to 43 parliamentary seats after 11 MPs left Barisan Nasional since losing the 14th general election in May. The latest exodus involved six MPs in Sabah who left the party yesterday.

“I will never leave Umno. The meeting was never to discuss who wanted to leave Umno,” said Mohamad, the former Negri Sembilan menteri besar.

The photos going viral show Mohamad and Dr Mahathir, Tanjung Karang MP Noh Omar, Putrajaya MP Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, Larut MP Hamzah Zainuddin and Arau MP Shahidan Kassim in a group photo and around a dining table.

Talk that Umno would be deregistered was rife after Pakatan Harapan won GE14 in May. 

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi even warned members to be prepared for the possibility as the party’s accounts had been frozen and its leaders were being investigated for corruption.

Bersatu supreme council member A. Kadir Jasin, meanwhile, said the pictures were taken on October 22 and that the meeting with Dr Mahathir was to ask the prime minister for a “lifeline”.

“This prime minister whom they insulted, they wanted to have dinner with. In the olden times of the kings, they could have been killed with poison.

“There were among them those who hoped meeting Tun Dr Mahathir would give them a lifeline,” Kadir said in a Facebook post today.

“However, they were mistaken. On November 14, (Tengku) Adnan Mansor was charged in court with corruption.

“Meeting the PM is not unusual. Leaving a party is also not unusual. But crimes remain crimes.” – December 13, 2018.