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Delhi CM gets Akhilesh’s support against Centre’s ordinance
Addressing a joint press conference with Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, Akhilesh said his party would support the AAP on the issue.
Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday assured his party’s support to Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal against the Centre’s ordinance on the control of services in the national capital.
The SP chief’s decision came after a nearly 40-minute meeting with Kejriwal amid efforts by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to garner support against the Centre’s ordinance. The meeting took place at the SP’s state headquarters in Lucknow.
Addressing a joint press conference with Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann after the meeting, Akhilesh said his party would support the AAP on the issue.
Kejriwal, the national convener of the AAP, has been reaching out to leaders of non-BJP parties to garner their support against the ordinance so that the Centre’s bid to replace it through a Bill is defeated when it is brought in Parliament.
The Samajwadi Party has three members in the Rajya Sabha.
The Centre on May 19 had promulgated the ordinance to create an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in Delhi, which the AAP government had called a deception with the Supreme Court verdict on the control of services.
The ordinance came a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi, excluding police, public order and land, to the elected government. Transfer and postings of all officers of the Delhi government were under the executive control of the lieutenant governor before the top court’s May 11 verdict.
Kejriwal, addressing the press conference, said: “After eight years of the legal battle against the Modi government’s notification, on this May 11, the SC’s constitutional bench gave its verdict by ‘5-0’ that all powers be there with the elected government. The order was extremely clear and strong... it took the people of Delhi eight years to get their rights back. But the Modi government took just eight days to reverse the SC order... on May 19, the Modi government brought in the ordinance to reverse the SC order”.
“Why May 19? Because the govt knew that the SC was going on vacation. But we will indeed go to the SC when it reopens after a month-long vacation... But now when this ordinance comes to Parliament, then in Lok Sabha the BJP has a majority. But in Rajya Sabha, they do not have a majority. Out of 238, only 93 members are from the BJP. So, if all non-BJP join hands then this ordinance can be shot down. If through the Rajya Sabha the ordinance fails to become a bill, then it will send a message countrywide that the Modi government is not coming back.”
The Samajwadi Party has three members in the Rajya Sabha.
Delhi education minister Atishi, AAP MP and U.P. party in-charge Sanjay Singh, SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav and SP’s chief whip Manoj Pandey were also in the press conference.
On his part, Mann said: “This fight is not just of Delhi people alone, but also for protecting the rights of 140 crore people of the country... If the BJP fails to form a government in a state, then they make it through by-elections... Or they make government by misusing the institution of the Governor...”
Mann added the country and its people must differentiate between an “elected and selected government”.
