Banerjee and Kejriwal meet, discuss the need to fight the BJP together
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal came down to meet his Bengal counterpart, Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Tuesday, May 23.
The primary purpose of the meeting at Nabanna was seeking Banerjee’s support in the AAP’s fight against the Union government’s ordinance creating a new group for bureaucrat postings, with the ultimate power lying in the hands of the lieutenant-governor, who is a Union government appointee. This ordinance bypassed a recent Supreme Court judgment which held that except for three areas in the State List, as mandated by the Constitution, postings of bureaucrats in all departments in the NCT Delhi government were to be in the hands of the elected government.
Since any ordinance must be approved by parliament within six months of its introduction, the next set of Rajya Sabha elections is crucial in the passing or not passing of the ordinance. While the BJP has an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, it needs the support of parties outside the NDA to get a Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha.
Kejriwal brought along his party’s Punjab chief minister (and former Lok Sabha MP) Bhagwant Singh Mann and Delhi cabinet colleagues, Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh and Atishi.
They, along with Banerjee, addressed a press conference at Nabanna where, besides the ordinance, they spoke about the brute force with which the BJP government operates and the need to come together in the fight against the saffron party, which wants to “bulldoze the constitution”, as Banerjee said.
