Former Member of Parliament for Port Dickson Danyal Balagopal Abdullah has refuted allegations that he received RM25 million for vacating the Port Dickson parliamentary seat.

Danyal Balagopal said that he would seek legal advice on the allegation and would not hesitate to take appropriate action against the people who made the allegation.

"In addition to the allegation that I had taken RM25 million to step down, there is now an article in a news portal that an ex-bartender had indicated that a retired admiral was corrupt and should be investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

"I am known as an individual who easily forgives someone else, but I cannot allow someone to take advantage of my personality and deliberately slanders me,” he said at a media conference today.

 Also present at the media conference was Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun.

Earlier, there was a news report claiming that Danyal Balagopal had purportedly received RM25 million to vacate the parliamentary seat to make way for PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim to contest.

He pointed out that he had resigned on his own initiative without coercion from anyone including Anwar himself.

Danyal Balagopal vacated the Port Dickson Parliamentary seat on Sept 12 to enable Anwar, who recently won the PKR president's post uncontested, to stand for election and return to the Dewan Rakyat.

In the 14th General Election (GE14) on May 9, Danyal Balagopal won the seat with a majority of 17,710 votes to defeat BN candidate V.S.Mogan and Mahfuz Roslan from PAS.

In the by-election this time, Anwar is expected to be challenged, among others, by PAS candidate Lt. Col. (Rtd) Mohd Nazari Mokhtar, former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad and media personality Stevie Chan Keng Leong.

- Bernama