File Photo: Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken (PTI Photo)
With the BJP's Kiran Bedi making clear she is not interested in a pre-election public debate with chief rival Arvind Kejriwal, Congress leader Ajay Maken has offered to debate the Aam Aadmi Party chief instead.
After Mr Kejriwal tweeted an invitation to Ms Bedi for a debate on TUesday, Mr Maken had offered to debate them both. Neither responded.
Today Mr Maken said, while filing his nomination papers from the Sadar Bazaar constituency, "I saw Kejriwal's tweet...Bedi does not have the guts for a debate. But how will she run the government if she cannot even face a debate?"
He also said, "I am willing to debate with Kejriwal face-to-face. If Kiran Bedi comes, well and good. If not we shall leave an empty chair for her."
In a high pitched speech, Mr Maken said, "BJP and AAP are two sides of same coin...Bedi and Kejri were hand in glove then and will be so now," pointing out that Ms Bedi and Mr Kejriwal - vying now for the Delhi chief minister's post - have been associates on the team of Gandhian activist Anna Hazare when he launched an anti-corruption movement.
Both the BJP and the AAP have dismissed as irrelevant the Congress party, which was all but wiped out in the Delhi assembly elections held in decemebr 2013, after ruling the state for 15 years straight.
But Mr Maken, a former union minister who has been tasked with resurrecting the party in Delhi, insists it will surprise its critics. "It has already started,"Maken told NDTV when he was asked if he could turn Congress' electoral fortunes.
Delhi, which has 70 assembly seats, had given a fractured mandate in the last elections. The Congress had won only eight seats. The BJP had won 31 and the AAP, 28, with no party able to get a majority.