NEW DELHI: With the BJP taking up BRT as a poll issue, the Congress, after conveniently giving it a miss in its manifesto, has suddenly gone on the defensive.

While on Thursday Union minister Kapil Sibal slammed BJP on the project, on Friday, Ajay Maken, Union urban development minister of state and the man who supported BRT project when he was transport minister in Delhi government, hit out at the opposition. "They want to take Delhiites to the moon on a bullock cart,'' said Maken, reacting to the BJP campaign and manifesto.

However, he failed to explain why BRT had not found a mention in the Congress manifesto released on Monday. Justifying the project, Maken said: "Public transport is the need of the hour and BRT is an important part of the multi-modal transport system. The problems that one is seeing are real but I would label them as teething troubles which are being set right.''

Asserting that the BJP's political campaign reflects double standards and a lack of vision, Maken pointed that on the one hand BJP says that it will scrap the BRT project once it comes into power and at the same time it talks of highlighting and applying the Gujarat Model of Governance to Delhi.

"Ironically, the list of key projects that are part of the vision of Narendra Modi to transform Ahmedabad includes the BRT corridor project which is proposed to be developed under the name of 'Janmarg'. The BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan too have been projecting BRT as their flagship achievements,'' Maken added.

Maken said Gujarat government has decided to implement BRT on a stretch of 88.5km at a cost of Rs 981.35 crore and has sought funds for the project under JNNURM. BRT was being implemented in Rajkot and Surat too with Central assistance, he added.

"The BJP manifesto reflects the mentality of a party suffering from opposition complex. It picks on all issues whether it is scrapping BRT or amending the Master Plan 2021 but fails to give alternatives,'' he said.