New Delhi: Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu’s Awaz-e-Punjab front is headed towards a split with the Bains brothers deciding to join forces with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in assembly elections next year.
This is the Aam Aadmi Party’s first pre-poll alliance.
The decision was taken on Saturday when Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains, who recently floated the Lok Insaaf Party, met AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Durgesh Pathak, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Gurpreet Bhatti and Jarnail Singh in Bhatinda. Bhatti played a crucial role in clinching the key alliance.
The split in Awaz-e-Punjab comes nearly three weeks after Navjot Singh Sidhu met Pathak in Delhi, triggering speculation that the outfit would ally with the AAP in polls.
Subsequent feelers sent out by the Congress, however, led to differences between Sidhu and the Bains brothers. Sources said Sidhu, along with Pargat Singh, was more inclined towards the Congress, while the Bains brothers favoured the Aam Aadmi Party.
A source in Awaz-e-Punjab, which was floated by Sidhu in September after quitting the BJP, confirmed the development and said the cricketer-turned-politician “can also join”.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh, too, confirmed the tie-up and said “details of seat sharing will be worked out later”.
An AAP source later said the Bains’ Lok Insaaf Party would contest on five of the 117 seats that go to the polls next year.
AAP's constitution bars two people from the same family from contesting elections.
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