Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday welcomed Balbir Singh Bath, a former three-time Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA. Bath joined the party in presence of state convenor Sucha Singh Chottepur and Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh welcomed the leader. Besides Bath, wife of former state finance minister in the SAD government Captain Kanwaljit Singh who died in a road accident in 2009, Sarabjit Kaur along with her daughter Manpreet Kaur and popular singer Sukhwinder Sukhi have also joined AAP, giving a big boost to the party.
Bath said that he was feeling unwanted in the party and accused SAD of ignoring the Taksali Akalis. Lashing out at his former party, the leader said that it has become a fiefdom of the Badal family. Apart from the individual joinings, a political outfit Secular Lok Raj led by Harchand Singh Barsat, former OSD of Captain Amarinder Singh, merged with AAP.
Sanjay Singh said that the new joining will add value to the party. However, on being asked about issuing tickets to the new members, Singh said that the party is not a platform to fulfil anyone’s political ambition. “We all are into it as volunteers. Those who are angry at not being given tickets do not subscribe to our ideology.”
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Speaking on the issue of Akali Dal president’s accusations of AAP having links with radicals and Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), he said, “I dare him to make public the investigation report which proves our links. There is no place for Khalistanis in our party.” On the other hand, Chottepur who reportedly had a tussle inside the party, said that was an internal matter of the party and that he would take up the issue with senior leaders.