Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national spokesperson and Delhi cabinet minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday said that they won’t contest in MP and Rajasthan if “Congress did not fight the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Delhi-Punjab”.

Speaking at a press conference, Bharadwaj said, “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,” Saurabh Bharadwaj commented at a press conference in Delhi, ANI reported.

Also Read: No support, no alliance: Delhi Congress tells party high command over backing AAP in ‘Ordinance’ row

This comment comes at a time when the AAP hopes to enlist the support of the Congress in its opposition to the Centre’s law governing the control of administrative services in Delhi.

“Congress is the oldest party of the country. But, today it has become C-C-C, Copy-Cat-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 added, the ANI reported. 

Also Read: Centre’s ordinance ‘unconstitutional’, will challenge it in Supreme Court: Arvind Kejriwal

The AAP leader accused the Congress party of copying Arvind Kejriwal’s renaming poll manifestos as ‘guarantees’. “Congress has stolen even this word,” he said.

The Congress party, he continued, had previously mocked the AAP’s free energy and a monthly stipend for women, but it is now proposing similar programmes 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 made fun of Congress for being unable to decide whether or not to back AAP about the ordinance issue.

“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.

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi and the national convenor of the AAP, began a statewide campaign against the law on May 23. On May 11, the party also staged a sizable protest against the ordinance in Delhi’s Ramlila Ground.