It's official: Lianhe Zaobao journalists are stalkers.

They managed to tail the senior members of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) all the way to their PAP branch, and have reported that it is likely that ex-Aljunied suicide squad member candidate Muralidharan Pillai will be their man to send into the Bukit Batok by-election.

Murali only flew back to Singapore from a holiday on Sunday, but shortly after arriving, he met up with PAP's former chairman Lim Boon Heng at the PAP Paya Lebar branch, the Chinese paper reported. The meeting started at 8pm and lasted for 45 minutes, they added.

After it ended, Lim and the 47-year-old reportedly spoke to about 20 to 30 PAP members, and in that gathering, the group applauded multiple times, Zaobao added.

It doesn't stop there: Murali shook hands with every member and took a group photo. Additionally, they noted he was the PAP branch secretary of Bukit Batok under the late Dr Ong Chit Chung — then-MP for Jurong GRC.

Now we've mentioned this before: branch secretaries are the most senior political volunteers who assist the MP.

Zaobao did hedge their bets, though, all that said. The paper mentioned the possibility of PAP Bukit Batok branch secretary Leow Boon Swee as a likely candidate, too. Leow was David Ong's proposer in last year's General Election.

Back to Murali, Zaobao quoted Lim as saying, "He just touched down. I need to discuss with him the party work of the past four years".

On whether Murali will attend Monday afternoon's PAP press conference to announce their candidate at Bukit Batok, Lim told the media that "it is possible".

Will it be him? We'll keep you posted.

Related article:

How about Murali Pillai, 47, as PAP’s candidate for Bukit Batok SMC by-election?

Top photo: Screenshot from rally video

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