Withdraw Delhi ordinance, or we will defeat it in parliament: KCR tells Modi

Kejriwal met the Telangana CM in Hyderabad

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrashekhar Rao | PTI Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrashekhar Rao | PTI

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Maan, met Telangana CM and TRS supremo K. Chandrashekhar Rao in Hyderabad on Saturday as part of the Aam Aadmi Party's efforts to garner support of opposition leaders against an ordinance issued by the Centre on control of services in the national capital. 

Rao, a staunch critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, extended his support to Kejriwal and asked the Centre to immediately withdraw the ordinance.

 "We demand the prime minister to withdraw the ordinance yourself or else we all will support Kejriwal Ji. We will stand by him. We will use all our strength in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to defeat the ordinance. Unnecessarily don't make an issue. Let the government work," Rao said, addressing a joint press conference with Kejriwal and Mann after their meeting.

The Telangana CM accused the Modi government of harassing the democratically elected state governments and said the ordinance is an insult to the people of Delhi.

"I can say without an iota of doubt it is insult to the Delhi state people," he said.

The Centre recently promulgated an ordinance to create an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in Delhi, with the AAP government calling the move a deception with the Supreme Court verdict on control of services.

The ordinance, which 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, seeks to set up a National Capital Civil Service Authority for transfer of and disciplinary proceedings against Group-A officers from the DANICS cadre.

The Centre is likely to bring a bill in the monsoon session of parliament to ratify the ordinance. The AAP feels that the bill can be defeated in Rajya Sabha with the support of opposition parties and that it will send a strong message to the Modi government ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Kejriwal met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and National Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar over the last one week. All these leaders have extended their support to the AAP and demanded that all non-BJP parties come together in parliament to defeat the bill.

Last week, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met Kejriwal in Delhi and assured JD(U)'s support in the AAP's power tussle with Centre. Kejriwal has also sought a meeting with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday.

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