Any alliance with Cong 'very difficult' until...: AAP after Oppn unity meet

The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday said any alliance with the Congress will be “very difficult” after its war of words with the grand old party over the contentious Delhi ordinance issue, at an opposition unity meeting in Bihar.

At the opposition meet in Patna, many parties urged the Congress to publicly denounce the “black ordinance”, but the grand old party refused to do so which raises suspicions about its “real intentions”, the AAP said in a statement soon after the meeting.

"The Congress' hesitation and refusal to act as a team player, especially on an issue as important as this one, will make it very difficult for the AAP to be a part of any alliance that includes the Congress," the AAP said.

"Until the Congress publicly denounces the black ordinance and declares that all 31 of its RS MPs will oppose the ordinance in the Rajya Sabha, it will be difficult for the AAP to participate in future meetings of like-minded parties where the Congress is a participant," it added.

The AAP's stance comes on a day when leaders from 17 opposition parties, including party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, met in Patna and "decided to work together and contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly" by setting aside their differences.

Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP's Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chaddh attended the meeting, but remained conspicuous by their absence at the joint press conference held by the opposition parties later.

The Bharatiya Janata Party took a potshot at the absence of Kejriwal at the opposition parties' joint press conference in Patna and said the AAP's “blackmailing” at the beginning of the meeting itself showed the future of the "unholy alliance".

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, however, said a decision on whether to oppose the Centre's ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi will be taken before the Parliament session and wondered why it is being talked about elsewhere when the matter pertains to Parliament.

"The Congress, a national party that takes a stand on almost all issues, is yet to make its position on the black ordinance public. However, the Congress' Delhi and Punjab units have announced that the party should support the Narendra Modi government on this issue,” the AAP said in a statement.

"Today, during the (meeting of) like-minded parties... in Patna, many parties urged the Congress to publicly denounce the black ordinance. However, the Congress refused to do so," it said.

The AAP termed the ordinance “anti-constitutional and outright undemocratic”, and said it seeks to reverse the Supreme Court's judgment which held that the Delhi government has control over the administrative services.

The Centre's ordinance is “an affront to the judiciary,” the party said.

It is high time the Congress decides whether it is standing with the people of Delhi or the Modi government, it added.

"In personal discussions, senior Congress leaders have hinted that their party might informally or formally abstain from voting on it in the Rajya Sabha," it charged.

"The Congress' abstention from voting on this issue will help the BJP immensely in furthering its attack on Indian democracy. If left unchallenged, this dangerous trend could spread to all other states, resulting in the usurpation of power from democratically elected state governments. It is crucial to defeat this black ordinance," it said.

Except the Congress, all other 11 parties which have representation in the Rajya Sabha have clearly expressed their stand against the “black ordinance” and announced that they would oppose it in the Upper House, the party added.

The Centre had on May 19 promulgated an ordinance to create an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in Delhi, a week after the apex court handed over the control of services in the national capital, excluding police, public order and land, to the elected government.

Following the ordinance, Kejriwal 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.

AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar told PTI, "We have received information from reliable sources that Rahul Gandhi and the BJP have reached an agreement that the Congress will stand by the saffron party on the issue of this illegal ordinance."

"The Congress should make it clear whether it is standing with the Constitution or the BJP," she said.

The Centre's ordinance 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 May 11 verdict of the apex court.