'AAP-Bains brothers tie-up is marriage between opportunists'

The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today described the alliance between AAP and Lok Insaaf Party as "marriage between two rank opportunists" and said AAP had admitted "defeat" in Punjab by aligning with "criminals".
In a statement here, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said it was clear that AAP no longer had the strength to fight elections on its own steam.
"But what it shocking is that it has aligned with Bains brothers - Simarjeet and Balwinder - who have more than a dozen criminal cases registered against them. By aligning with known extortionists AAP has exposed it's true face to Punjabis today", he added.

The ruling faction accused AAP of joining hands with "criminals and exposed it for what it was - a party without any morals or ethics".
The coming together of AAP and Insaaf Party is a "marriage between two rank opportunists who are getting desperate to remain politically relevant," said Cheema.
He said the desperation in AAP circles was showing. "How else can you describe its decision to give five seats to a two man party? This proves AAP realises it is no longer relevant in Punjab and is searching for props to remain afloat".

As far as the Bains brothers and their "rag tag" Insaaf Party is concerned, the Akali leader said the brothers who were now targeting the SAD and the Congress had tried to "ingratiate" themselves to both parties in the recent past.

"Bains brothers tried to get into the SAD after the last assembly elections in 2012. They went against the SAD only when they were turned down firmly and told that the SAD did not subscribe to their brand of blackmail politics.
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked AAP
Convenor Arvind Kejriwal to disclose his own party's source of funding from foreign shores to make the people of Punjab aware of the origin of these funds.
"This should be your first step to clean yourself from any association with tainted money", SAD senior leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said adding even though this demand had been made many times, AAP continued to keep the source of its foreign funding a "secret".

"You claim to stand for transparency. Why are you hiding the source of your funding? It would be better if you come clean on your own party funds," he added.
The SAD leader said the credit for "exposing" Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh and his family's foreign accounts could not be snatched from the country's enforcement agencies by the "cheap theatrics" of Kejriwal.
He said the agencies had been able to deliver and expose the monies stashed abroad by the Amarinder family because of the free hand given by the NDA government.
He said Amarinder had also acknowledged the same thought by claiming he was being targeted by the NDA government.

"The truth is that the erstwhile Congress government stonewalled all attempts to expose people like Amarinder who had hoarded crores of the hard earned money of Punjabis abroad in foreign accounts. It is only after the NDA government came into being that these accounts were put into public domain", he alleged.
Dhindsa said Kejriwal had displayed his "chameleon qualities" to Punjabis again through his actions today.
"Here is a man who is parroting out details about foreign bank accounts which are already known even as he continues to support black marketers and chit fund fraudsters by taking a stand against the demonetisation drive", he alleged.