KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 — PKR’s Rafizi Ramli has cheekily debunked a newspaper’s suggestion that he, party colleague Nurul Izzah Anwar and Umno’s Khairy Jamaluddin were discussing founding a new party after being pictured sharing a table yesterday.

The former Pandan MP denied that he, Nurul Izzah who is Permatang Pauh MP or Rembau MP Khairy were conspiring to hop out of their parties.

“Absolutely no talk about jumping or forming new party,” he tweeted, tagging Malay daily Berita Harian.

Instead, he claimed the former Umno Youth chief was only teaching him how to apply filters on photo-sharing phone application Instagram while mother of two Nurul Izzah shared schooling tips.

“I gave tips on how to be fat,” the round-faced 41-year-old quipped.

The Twitter post was retweeted by Khairy who has been a vocal critic of his own party leadership since the Barisan Nasional lost its irongrip rule in the May general election.

Rafizi posted a picture of the trio on December 10 to indicate they had lunch every once in a while.

Nurul Izzah’s shock announcement yesterday that she was relinquishing all government and party positions with the exception of the Permatang Pauh representative set off a storm of speculation, which became more furious after the picture of the trio taken at the Alexis Bistro in the upmarket Bangsar Shopping Centre spread.

In an article today, Berita Harian quoted former Selangor Amanah election bureau chief Jaafar Samsuddin saying he does not rule out the possibility of a youth party established by the trio.

Jaafar was reported saying Rafizi is seen to be winning the hearts of young voters and Khairy is seen as a strong, loud opponent lately by openly criticising Umno.