Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has called for a meeting with party leaders on May 29 to decide whether to support Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the dispute over the Central government’s ordinance which attempts to negate the Supreme Court’s judgement allowing the Delhi state government to control service matters. Kejriwal had personally requested the meeting with Kharge and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
According to sources, the party is still considering its decision on the ordinance matter. Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopol said that the party was yet to take a decision and would consult its state units and other like-minded parties on the same. There has already been vocal opposition to supporting Kejriwal’s party in matters of the ordinance from senior Congress leaders Ajay Maken, Sandeep Dikshit and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
In the face of this opposition Kejriwal has been travelling around, meeting numerous state party leaders. He has met with Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal(U) and Tejashwi Yadav of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, Uddhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). All have expressed their support of Kejriwal and his battle with the ordinance. Kejriwal is planning to visit K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Telangana Chief Minister, of the Bharath Rashtra Samithi on Saturday to ask for his support as well.
The ordinance in question, set up by the Central government, proposes a permanent authority known as the National Capital Civil Service Authority which would be chaired by the Delhi Chief Minister. The recommendation process for officers’ transfer and posting would be done jointly with the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary (Home). However, any differences in opinion would be resolved in favor of the Lieutenant Governor.
The Supreme Court had ruled on May 11 that a the democratically elected Delhi government should be responsible for the officers and staff under it, thereby giving the state government control on state matters, including transfer and posting of officers.
In response to this, Kejriwal has urged opposition parties to not let the bill pass in the Rajya Sabha and protect the interests of the people of Delhi.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is a political party in India and was founded by Arvind Kejriwal in 2012. The primary focus of the party is on eliminating corruption and providing “Swaraj” or self-governance to the people of India.
