A series of frantic attempts by Anwar Ibrahim to negotiate with a key group of MPs who quit his party last year has failed in its objective of getting them to revert their support to the opposition leader, MalaysiaNow can confirm.

It is learnt that former PKR MPs who are now part of the government have flatly rejected appeals from emissaries tasked by Anwar to speak to them privately.

One such meeting took place “sometime last week”, an aide to a PKR MP said on condition of strict anonymity.

The aide revealed how different “teams of negotiators” were tasked with talking to different former PKR MPs who supported the so-called Sheraton Move which saw Pakatan Harapan (PH) ejected from federal power early last year.

When asked if the targeted MPs included Mohamed Azmin Ali and Zuraida Kamaruddin, who were labelled “traitors” by the party after leading about a dozen MPs out of PKR to further deplete the party’s parliamentary share, the aide replied, “Yes.”

“And this was despite other negotiating teams telling another story to other MPs that the party wants to take all of them back except Azmin and Zuraida.”

The meetings took place after PKR leaders were instructed to find the necessary numbers ahead of expectations that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will step down to allow the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to gauge the support of prime ministerial nominees.

It is learnt that several DAP leaders were unhappy with the inclusion of some 15 Umno MPs aligned with scandal-tainted former leaders Najib Razak and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Yesterday, MalaysiaNow reported that PKR and Anwar were relying on the backing of the group of Umno MPs who had revoked their support for Muhyiddin to give Anwar the numbers needed for the top post.

“In the end, none of the MPs who quit PKR agreed to come back. It was something expected judging by their strong disagreements with the way Anwar ran the party,” said the source.