KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim denied today that he had approached Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir to become Perak’s Mentri Besar.

The Perak Mentri Besar claimed today that after Election 2008 he was approached by PKR’s “number one leader” to defect and was even offered the post of mentri besar.

The offer came before PAS’ Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin was chosen.

Anwar looked confused when asked about Zambry’s allegation and stressed that he had never spoken to the Pangkor assemblyman.

“Ask him where did I see him? Did I speak to him?” he asked The Malaysian Insider.

Anwar become irritated when pressed and reiterated that he did not meet Zambry.

“Ask him where did I meet him? I did not see or meet him. I have never talked on the phone with him. Send my regards to him,” he said.

The stunning revelation was made during Zambry’s winding up speech on the debate of thanks on the royal address at the Perak State Assembly here this afternoon.

He did not reveal who the “number one leader” was and when asked whether he was referring to the party president (Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail) or the adviser (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim), Zambry merely said, “At the time, the leader was supposedly a very big leader”.

Anwar also slammed Zambry as a “bankrupt politician.”

When the BN government fell in Perak during in the March 2008 general election, the then newly formed Pakatan Rakyat coalition which is made up of DAP, PAS and PKR had submitted the names of three possible candidates to take on the post of mentri besar to the royal palace.

Nizar was later chosen to be the mentri besar of Perak.