"Won't Contest In Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan If...": AAP's Offer To Congress

Hitting out at the Congress party, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj on Thursday came out with an 'offer' for the grand old party, saying that if it doesn't contest elections in Delhi and Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will also not contest the upcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh and in Rajasthan.

This comes at a time when AAP is looking forward to getting support from the Congress against the Centre's ordinance over control of administrative services in Delhi.

"Congress party got zero seats in the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections in Delhi. If Congress says they will not fight elections in Delhi-Punjab, then we will also say we will not fight elections in MP-Rajasthan," the AAP leader said while addressing a press conference here in the national capital on Thursday.

Saurabh Bhardwaj also took a jibe at the grand old party calling it "Copy-Cat-Congress" and said that it lacks its own, that's why they are stealing the manifesto of the Aam Aadmi Party.

"Congress is the oldest party of the country. But, today it has become C-C-C, Copy-Cut-Congress. They are stealing everything from Arvind Kejriwal. They have no idea of their own left. Now it is coming to the fore that Congress not only lacks leadership but also lacks ideas. Congress does not have such a mechanism to know the people's aspirations," he said.

Mr Bhardwaj added, "The biggest example of this is that today this country's oldest party is stealing the manifesto of the country's newest party AAP. Arvind Kejriwal called our manifesto a guarantee. Even this guarantee word has been stolen by the Congress".

He further said that the Congress party had earlier mocked AAP's free electricity and monthly allowances to women, but now it is itself promising the schemes in other states.

"When we talked about giving free electricity in Delhi, the Congress made fun of us. But, it copied Arvind Kejriwal's guarantee in Himachal Pradesh and promised 300 units of free electricity. It also mocked our free allowance to women in Punjab, but later itself announced it in Himachal and Karnataka," he said.

He also took a dig at Congress for not being able to take the decision on whether to support AAP on the ordinance issue or not.

"Decisions are often delayed in the Congress party. They could not form the government in Goa on time and the BJP took away the MLA by breaking the party," he added.

From May 23, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal embarked on a nationwide tour to seek support from the Opposition parties against the Ordinance.

The party also held a mega rally at Delhi's Ramlila ground on May 11 against the ordinance.

The AAP national convenor has so far met with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

The Union government on May 19 brought an ordinance to notify rules for the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) regarding the 'transfer posting, vigilance and other incidental matters'.

The ordinance was brought to amend the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991 and it circumvents the Supreme Court judgement in the Centre vs Delhi case.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)