New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow today amid efforts by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to seek support against the Centre’s ordinance on control of administrative services in the national capital. According to a report by news agency PTI, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will accompany Kejriwal at the meeting.
Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal wrote, “Tomorrow, I and Bhagwant Mann Sahib will meet Akhilesh Yadav ji in Lucknow to seek support for the rights of the people of Delhi against the unconstitutional ordinance of the Central government.”
AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh is also likely to accompany CM Kejriwal at the meeting, an SP leader said without elaborating on the agenda of the meeting.
It is to be noted that the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party has been reaching out to leaders of the Opposition 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.
So far, CM Kejriwal held a meeting with his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, Telangana CM KCR, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.
Notably, 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 called a deception with the Supreme Court verdict on control of services.
The ordinance came a week after the top court handed over the control of services in Delhi, excluding police, public order and land, to the elected government. It seeks to set up a National Capital Civil Service Authority for the transfer of and disciplinary proceedings against Group-A officers from the DANICS cadre.
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.