Punjab MLA H.S. Phoolka joins a host of senior leaders who have left AAP amid reports of disenchantment over Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership.
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Punjab MLA H.S. Phoolka resigned from the Punjab assembly Friday, days after he said he planned to quit the House.
AAP sources told ThePrint that the 63-year-old was also likely to resign from the party very soon.
“It was going on for a long time now,” said a source, “Phoolka doesn’t trust (AAP convenor Arvind) Kejriwal and Kejriwal doesn’t trust Phoolka. Kejriwal thinks Phoolka doesn’t help him defuse the crisis in the party in Punjab.”
If Phoolka does quit the party, he will join a host of senior leaders who have called time on their association with the six-year-old AAP amid reports of widespread disenchantment with Kejriwal’s leadership.
Phoolka reportedly resigned from the assembly in keeping with a threat he first made last month, when he said the Congress-led state administration should arrest former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini over alleged police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters in 2015 that killed two Sikh youth.
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The source added that there had been tension in the party since it failed to win the 2017 assembly elections. Phoolka, the source said, wanted political affairs committee member Durgesh Pathak and AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh to be penalised for “ruining” the election for the party but Kejriwal thought otherwise.
Singh and Pathak had led the party’s Punjab campaign. The AAP won 20 of the state’s 117 seats, while the Congress, the SAD and the BJP got 77, 15 and three, respectively.
Phoolka has threatened to quit the party earlier too, when reports suggested the AAP was considering joining the Congress-led grand alliance.
“Phoolka has made it very clear that he can’t be associated with the party if it allies with the Congress for whatsoever reason,” the source said, “He made it very clear that justice for the 1984 riot victims was the mission of his life and he couldn’t be allies with the perpetrators.”
The Congress was in office during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
No relief for AAP
The party has been battling one crisis after another in Punjab since winning four Lok Sabha seats from the state in the 2014 general elections.
The party suspended two MPs, Dharamvira Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa, in August 2015 for anti-party activities.
It has also elected three leaders of the opposition in the Punjab assembly over the last 18 months: Phoolka, a lawyer, resigned from the post in July 2017 to pursue cases stemming from the 1984 riots, while his successor Sukhpal Singh Khaira was sacked over growing differences with the Delhi unit. The post is now held by Harpal Singh Cheema.
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Khaira has since revolted against the party and claims to have the support of eight legislators. Several attempts by the Delhi leadership of the AAP to end the factionalism in the party, including visits by Kejriwal and senior member Manish Sisodia, have remained unsuccessful.