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Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, and Uddhav Thackeray. In the next three days, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal will visit Kolkata before flying to Mumbai to meet three of the most prominent Opposition leaders in the country and mobilise voices against the Centre’s ordinance to regain control over officers working under the Delhi government.
While the official purpose of Kejriwal’s hop from the country’s east coast to the west is to thwart in the Rajya Sabha the passage of the proposed new architecture for the transfer and posting of officers, Kejriwal’s outreach will also serve as an index for the state of unity in Opposition ranks.
Kejriwal set the ball rolling on this front by meeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav in New Delhi on Sunday. “If we are successful in stopping the passage of the Bill to replace the ordinance in the Rajya Sabha, it will send a message ahead of the 2024 general elections that the BJP is on its way out,” Kejriwal told reporters after the meeting at his residence.
On Tuesday, Kejriwal will meet his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata. The following day, he will hold talks with Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai and meet Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in the country’s financial capital on Thursday.
Together, the Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) account for 11 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP is the single-largest party with 93 members. The AAP, the TMC, the Shiv Sena (UBT), and the NCP collectively have another 29 MPs in the Upper House, numbers that Kejriwal is banking on apart from the Left parties, which have announced protests against the ordinance.
The CPI(M) has five Rajya Sabha MPs while the CPI has two. Apart from the 37 MPs who represent these parties, the AAP hopes to get the support of the DMK (10), the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (7), the Samajwadi Party (3), the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (2), the Rashtriya Lok Dal (1), among others. According to AAP leaders, Kejriwal will formally meet the heads of several other parties in the next few weeks.
But the party also recognises that without the backing of the Congress, which has 31 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, the pushback against the ordinance does not have a fighting chance in the House. Even with the support of the Congress, the AAP’s attempt to thwart the Centre’s move may fail if the BJP gets parties such as the BJD (9) and YSR Congress Party (9) to support it.
“The party is mindful of the fact that the ordinance may turn into an Act as it is very difficult to defeat the government in the numbers game due to cross-voting, abstentions etc. And to expect that the Congress, which has just been defeated by us at the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, is impractical. The idea is to galvanise public opinion instead as the ordinance provides the perfect window to do that. There will soon be a public meeting at the Ramlila Maidan against the ordinance,” said an AAP functionary.
The Congress on Monday signalled that it was open to joining like-minded parties in opposing in Parliament a Bill that the government would table to replace the ordinance. But the party insisted it had not taken a view on the ordinance and would take a call in consultation with other Opposition parties.
“The Congress Party has not taken any decision on the issue of the Ordinance brought against the SC judgment on the powers of the Government of NCT of Delhi with respect to appointment of officers. It will consult its state units & other like-minded parties on the same. The party believes in the rule of law and at the same time does not condone unnecessary confrontation, political witch-hunt and campaigns based on lies against political opponents by any political party,” tweeted All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is a member of the Congress Working Committee, has criticised the Centre’s move in his capacity as the lawyer of the Delhi government in the case, which reached the Supreme Court. On May 11, the apex court ruled in favour of the Delhi government, which claims that the ordinance negates that judgment.
As of now, it is not clear if Kejriwal intends to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as well but sources in the AAP said it had been decided that Nitish, during his meeting with the Congress leadership on Monday, will bring up the issue. Incidentally, the Congress did not invite the AAP chief to the Karnataka government swearing-in ceremony.
Similarly, the Congress also did not feature in the list of invitees to the AAP’s proposed dinner meeting in April for a group of eight chief ministers. The meeting eventually did not take place.
AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, “Ye agni pariksha ki ghadi hai (This is a time for trial by fire) … the country is witnessing a state of emergency. If the verdict of the Supreme Court judgment can be overturned like this, then does the judiciary has any relevance anymore? The Congress needs to decide whether it stands with the country’s Constitution or against it. It is as simple as that.”
Delhi minister and AAP MLA Atishi said, “It is not about one party. Wherever the Opposition defeats the BJP, the party pulls out all stops to harass democratically elected governments. Delhi is just the beginning, it can happen anywhere. Just like the L-G (Lieutenant Governor) has been used against us, the office of Governors has been used against governments under the Congress, the DMK, and the TMC, among others. Every non-BJP party and every regional party need to recognise that the ongoing assault is not against the AAP, but the country’s democracy and the federal structure.”
