Delhi services row: Mamata Banerjee assures support to Arvind Kejriwal in fight against ordinance

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday assured her counterpart from Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, that her party would support him in his fight against the Central ordinance to control appointments and transfer of bureaucrats in that city state.

Banerjee informed the media after a nearly hour-long meeting that the Rajya Sabha vote on a bill to make the government ordinance on regulation of services in Delhi into law will serve as a semi-final before the 2024 elections. 

Addressing the media, she said: "We support AAP in the fight against the Central ordinance ...Request all parties not to vote for BJP's law (on controlling appointments in Delhi)".

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She further said, "Central Government will rule all the states, through Governors, ordinances and letters... I request all opposition parties that if you are willing to work together, don't let a single vote go to the BJP, I want everyone to vote for non-BJP parties against such an ordinance."

"The double engine (BJP rule in both state and centre) has become a troubled engine," the furious TMC leader added.

Kejriwal, who travelled the country alongside Punjab's chief minister Bhagwant Mann to gather up support for his campaign, launched an assault against the BJP while in Kolkata. He said that the saffron party buys MLAs, employs the CBI and ED to try to topple opposition governments, as well as employing governors to topple non-BJP administrations in places like Bengal and Punjab.

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Kejriwal and Mann also turned the impromptu press conference held after the meeting of the two leaders, into an attack on the BJP and central government.

The Supreme Court order last week giving control of services, with the exception of those related to police, public order, and land, to the elected government in Delhi has been overturned by a Central government ordinance creating a National Capital Civil Service Authority. This has been the source of contention between the AAP government and the BJP.

The new rule transfers these authority from the Delhi state government to a committee that would essentially be under central supervision.Opposition parties are seeking to delay the introduction of a central legislation in the upper house, or Rajya Sabha, when it comes up for discussion to replace the ordinance.In order to defend the nation's democracy and Constitution, the AAP has already asked for the assistance of all non-BJP parties, claiming that now is "time for agni pariksha" for the opposition parties. 

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(With PTI inputs)