Party spokesperson expresses doubt over Shinde’s promise to probe allegations against it

Expressing scepticism over Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s promise that the source of the Aam Aadmi Party’s funding would be probed, the BJP on Monday claimed the party was a Congress front.

BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said the Congress had been colluding with the AAP, which will contest all 70 seats in the upcoming Delhi elections, and had thus far sidelined any probe into allegations behind the party’s foreign funding.

Maintaining that there were four legal provisions, including the Income Tax Act, that pertained to foreign funding, Ms. Lekhi said: “Before [availing of] such funding, [a party must obtain] sanction under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act and [from] the Ministry of Home Affairs. This [is] so because Chapter 2 of the Regulation of Foreign Contribution and Foreign Hospitality states that under Section 4 of the Act, a candidate or a political party cannot receive a foreign contribution. Section 2 of the Act also explains the meaning of foreign sources.”

Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly V.K. Malhotra had raised the issue of AAP’s funding and two Congress Ministers had given the party a clean chit, she said.

Ms. Lekhi claimed that Mr. Shinde had offered to probe the AAP’s funding after the Congress realised its tacit support had been exposed: “My counter question to Mr. Shinde is: why did you so far not probe how the money had come in for the AAP.”