AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and fellow party leaders release the party manifesto for Delhi elections. (PTI Photo)
Terming the Aam Aadmi Party's manifesto as a document of "rehashed" and "borrowed" ideas, the BJP today said the promises made by its rival party were not even worthy of consideration.
Labelling the manifesto as "entertaining", Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the AAP did not have a blue print for developing Delhi into a global city.
"Going through the manifesto reveals that it is full of rehashed ideas from its last year's manifesto. Many of the points have been borrowed from BJP's future plans for the capital," she said in a press conference.
Ms Sitharaman also took a dig at AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, saying "vishwas nahi hain us party pe jaha Vishwas baithe hai (we do not believe in the party, of which Vishwas is a member)."
Asked about BJP's stand on the issue of giving full statehood to Delhi, the Minister said that government was "seriously seized" of the matter.
"Statehood is a serious issue involving different layers of governance including internal security, national security, resource mobilisation. We are seriously seized of the matter. We aren't saying we won't give statehood to Delhi," she said.
The party also lobbed a fresh set of questions at the AAP, alleging that electricity tariff had gone up by up to seven per cent during the 49-day government, contrary to AAP's claims of a 50 per cent reduction.
Union Minister Ananth Kumar claimed that the short-lived AAP government had subsidized private distribution companies, and askedwhy the relief was not directly passed on to the consumers and an audit of the discoms were not conducted.
The party also questioned the AAP's claim of not conducting VAT raids on traders while it was in power. Citing an "RTI reply", Mr Kumar said that 151 raids by VAT department were conducted between January 1 and 14.
The BJP also sought to counter the AAP's assertion of collecting over Rs 5,000 crore as revenue while it was in the government. Mr Kumar said the AAP was "befooling" contractual employees in the name of regularising them.