Day After Quitting AAP, HS Phoolka Meets BJP Leader Vijay Goel

Former Aam Aadmi Party member H S Phoolka, who quit the party earlier this week, met BJP leader Vijay Goel today to greet the Union minister on his birthday.

Mr Goel called Mr Phoolka a "good friend" and lauded his legal battle for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. "He quit AAP recently. Better late than never," Mr Goel said.

The sources said it was the second meeting between Mr Goel and Mr Phoolka in the past few days. He had also met the BJP leader before resigning from the AAP on Thursday, they claimed.

Mr Phoolka has avoided giving any reason behind quitting the AAP and expressed his desire to float a non-political outfit in Punjab to fight the drug menace and the perceived politicization of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

He, however, was averse to any alliance between the AAP and the Congress. A pre-poll tie-up between the two parties is taking rounds, with none of them denying it officially.

The sources claimed Mr Phoolka was also annoyed over the AAP's stand on the demand to strip former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi of the Bharat Ratna for "justifying" the anti-Sikh riots.

Mr Phoolka had said that the conversion of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement into a political party in 2012 was a wrong step. He has not declared his future political move, although he has announced that he would not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election.