Sukhbir’s allegation on foreign funding baseless: AAP

Chandigarh, Aug 30 (PTI) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today hitback at Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on theissue of its funding, saying his allegations were "baseless"and it was open to a probe. "We (AAP) urge Prime Minister (Narendra Modi), HomeMinister (Rajnath Singh) and Sukhbir Singh Badal (who alsoholds portfolio of state’s home affairs) to get the issue offunding to AAP probed by any agency," Punjab’s AAP politicalaffairs in-charge Sanjay Singh said here. "If anything is found against AAP on the funding issue,action must be taken against us, but if nothing is found thenSukhbir should resign," he said, adding, "He appears to bemore as a comedy minister then a home minister. He givesbaseless statements," Sanjay said. Sukhbir had recently requested Rajnath to initiate aprobe into the funding of AAP allegedly by "extremist elementsabroad" which aims to destabilise the state ahead of assemblyelections next year. The deputy chief minister, in a letter to Singh, hadrequested him to launch an immediate investigation into the"huge amount of money" being received by AAP from "radicalelements residing in North America, Europe and Australia". "A thorough investigation into the money trail wouldunravel and expose those trying to disturb the hard won peaceof Punjab through incidents of sacrilege and violence,"Sukhbir had claimed. Rejecting his claims, Sanjay said AAP is a secular partyand "respects all religions". Launching a frontal attack on Revenue Minister BikramSingh Majithia, he said the latter was "forcing" youths toconsume drugs. "Majithia should be in jail," he demanded. Sanjay exuded confidence that AAP will win over 100assembly seats in Punjab out of the total 117. He rejected claims that "division" is taking place in AAPin Punjab, saying "party is united". Sanjay said the party had decided not to make any commenton AAP’s former Punjab convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur till thetwo-member probe panel submit its report on allegations ofbribe against the party leader. On Punjab government’s decision to distribute utensils tothe poor, AAP’s Punjab MP Bhagwant Mann said how come AkaliDal has now realised to do so. "They (Akali Dal) are talking about distributing utensils,but what about providing food to the poor," he said. The number of people below poverty line during the Akaliregime has increased, he claimed. PTI VJ EMY AQS ZMNAQS