The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government told the Delhi High Court it did not implement the Centre's Ayushman Bharat Yojana because Delhi's existing health schemes offer "superior" benefits.

Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj argued that adopting the central scheme would downgrade the quality of healthcare in the capital.

The response came after a petition by seven BJP MPs demanding the implementation of Ayushman Bharat. Bharadwaj called the petition politically motivated and linked it to the upcoming assembly elections. He pointed out that the petitioners belong to the opposition party, which performed poorly in the last Delhi elections.

Bharadwaj claimed the petition praised Ayushman Bharat while ignoring Delhi's health policies, which he said are better suited to residents' needs. He argued that replacing Delhi’s schemes with the Centre’s would harm the capital's residents and emphasized that policymaking is the state government's prerogative.

The minister criticized the Centre for relying on outdated 2011 Census data to frame Ayushman Bharat, saying it excludes many eligible beneficiaries in Delhi. "A scheme based on old data cannot be forced on another government," he said.

In response, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj accused the AAP government of refusing to cooperate and clarified that Ayushman Bharat was designed to support, not replace, state initiatives.