Palghar (Maharashtra), Apr 2 (IANS): In a sharp attack, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackery on Tuesday demanded that the Congress should be derecognized and banned from fighting the 2019 elections as it was propagating "an anti-national agenda".

Reacting to the Congress election manifesto, the NDA ally asked: "What kind of government they (Congress) want - those of traitors and anti-nationals, or of patriots and nationalists?"

He said that such a party had no right to contest the elections and the Election Commission must derecognize and bar the Congress from the electoral battle.

Terming the Congress manifesto promising to end poverty in India within a decade as "full of lies", he said that even Congress President Rahul Gandhi's grandmother, the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had promised 'garibi hatai' but nothing happened all these years.

Thackeray also countered the Congress arguments on the need to hold talks with the Kashmiri separatists to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir problems.

"There cannot be any talks with such separatists. We have always been against negotiations with them," he said, while attending an election rally for the BJP-Sena candidate in Palghar constituency.