Cong, SAD hit out at Khaira after he joins AAP

Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira came into criticism from the party and from the ruling Akali Dal after he joined the Aam Aadmi Party here today.
While the Congress termed it a "good riddance" for party, the SAD, said move shows "political opportunism" of AAP.
Hitting back for calling the state Congress leaders "tainted and corrupt", the party said Khaira's father, Sukhjinder Singh, who was a minster, was sacked for "corruption".
How has he started finding fault in the party, as "only on December 1 Khaira issued a statement hailing Amarinder's appointment as the PCC chief saying it would mark the beginning of the end for the Akalis," senior vice president of the Punjab Congress Laal Singh said.

People like Khaira, can never be happy and comfortable with any political party. It is his third party having started with Akali then to Congress and now to AAP, he said.
Singh said he would sue Khaira for "defamation" by levelling baseless charges as he had been "acquitted" by the Supreme Court.

"Laal Singh has been indicted for serious corruption charges by the Lokpal," Khaira had alleged earlier today.
"Khaira is an outright opportunist whose ambition is disproportionate to his capabilities," Singh said.
"A leader's standing is judged at the time of polls and Khaira has a hat-trick of rejections, and fourth defeat will be added in 2017," he asserted.

Laal Singh also alleged Khaira had "raised Khalistan flag" in Kapurthala.
The senior PCC vice president pointed out that Khaira's reputation was that of a "land grabber". "Even the house he is living in Chandigarh belongs to the father of a popular film actress and he had forcibly occupied it," he accused.
He also denied Khaira's claims that he was offered National Spokespersonship of the AICC saying that by making such statements he wants to bargain posts in AAP.
The ruling SAD described Khaira's entry into AAP as "marriage of political frustration with political opportunism."
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Bains said no political party in the country had taken such short a time to "kill" the ideology it was founded on.

"The ideological bankruptcy of the AAP has been fully exposed. It now has the distinction in Punjab of being led by a political drop-out of the SAD," Bains said.
Nothing symbolises the political cynicism of the two sides more than the fact that they chose the sacred occasion of Christmas and the martyrdom of the Sahibzadas to crucify ideology and principles, he said.
"The AAP in Punjab is celebrating the murder of its own principles because one of its boasts in Punjab was that it will never accept political dead-wood from other parties. But, that is just what it is doing now," he noted.

Bains said, Khaira did not leave the Congress citing any issue of political ideology or principles.
"In fact, he has been virtually forced out of the party, because neither Partap Singh Bajwa nor Amarinder gave him any position befitting his evaluation of his own standing. He had been totally marginalised in Congress," he added.
Senior SAD leader Bibi Jagir Kaur termed Khaira "turncoat" and said he would even "lose his deposits" in the next Assembly election in Punjab.