KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 – Secretary General, Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan says Umno’s grassroots strength and a resilience leadership are among the factors that made it like a ‘magnet’ that attracts other parties to cooperate.

In fact, he said continuous success in series of by-elections and state elections after the defeat in the last general demonstrates how the coalition has the right package to continue serving the people.

“They only realized that Umno is the strongest grassroots party in the country. Like it or not, they have to admit it. Our 22,000 branches of Women, Youth and Puteri strongly turned our 191 divisions unrattled.

“The party president and his predecessor are hassled at the court as well some other leaders in what is described as political prosecution but none of them has backed down,” he said during a talk program, ‘Umno Rise, Fight & Win’ on Umno-Online FB Live yesterday. It was moderated by Datuk Dr Noor Azizan Abdul Majid.

Ahmad who is also the Pontian MP added that Umno members are already equipped with respective training as to prepare them for any challenge.

“The leadership has to undergo a more serious and dynamic training and its proven in series of victories.

“First is the series of seven by-elections, second is from the only remaining rep in Sabah State Assembly, we got 14  plus two more who were appointed, making us a major part of the Sabah government. The third was when we won in Melaka while the fourth series was a big win for our close friend in Sarawak.

“Why did I mention Sarawak… because the understanding between BN and GPS caused GPS to win big, Imagine if we don’t have an understanding because there were parties who wanted to use BN logo… but we didn’t because GPS is a close friend of BN.

“The fifth series is Johor, out of 19 seats we captured the lost ones, winning 40 out of 56 seats. So, who can deny BN’s strength?” he said.