Congress, BJP slam AAP's 'cheap' politics, call rally a flop show

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party drew sharp criticism from BJP and Congress after it accused lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung for acting like a BJP stooge on Sunday.
BJP said that by calling the LG "Modi-fied", AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had "clearly shown that he has no respect for any constitutional authority. It shows how cheap he has made politics".

Both Congress and BJP said the rally, which attracted around 8,000 people, was a failure. In a joint statement issued by Delhi BJP general secretaries Ramesh Bidhuri, Jai Prakash and Shikha Rai, the party asked whether it was justified to call a rally 'jan samwad' when hardly a couple of thousand people turned up in a city like Delhi that has a population of 1.25 crore.

Congress leader Arvinder Singh accused AAP of having paid people to come to Jantar Mantar.

"The 8,000 people were from all across India, including states like Haryana. They had arranged for buses and despite this if they managed just 8,000 people, it shows that AAP has no standing," he said.

BJP said it would never run away from elections because of which people of India had reposed their faith in the party.

"Meanwhile, Kejriwal and his party have repeatedly changed their political stands in hardly two years of their existence, as a result of which people of India have dismissed the party altogether in the recent Lok Sabha elections."

Congress, too, accused AAP of moving away from people-centric issues like price rise and only seeking elections to further its political existence.

"AAP came to Congress to ask for support. Congress has always maintained that it will not support BJP or AAP and has asked for fresh elections," said Singh.

Congress leader Mukesh Sharma also alleged that Kejriwal has "close links" with BJP. "We want to know why AAP, which has taken donations from people all over the country, is now shying away from contesting elections in other states. It has lost its support base but Kejriwal has struck deals with leading corporate houses," he said.