To rally opposition to Center’s ordinance, Arvind Kejriwal meets with Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met with his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon as part of a national tour to drum up support for his fight against the Center’s ordinance on control of services in Delhi.

Kejriwal is taking on the central law creating the National Capital Civil Service Authority, which essentially nullifies a Supreme Court judgement that was passed last week and gave control of all services to the elected government in Delhi, with the exception of those connected to police, public order, and land.

Arvind Kejriwal is being accompanied by Punjab’s chief minister and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann. They should be in Mumbai by the evening and will probably see Sharad Pawar, the leader of the NCP, and Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT), on Wednesday.

Raghav Chadha and Atishi, two other AAP leaders, also travelled to Kolkata to meet with the Bengal CM.

‘Today, I am starting my journey around the country for the rights of the people of Delhi. The Supreme Court passed a judgement giving justice to the people of Delhi. The Centre snatched away those rights by bringing the ordinance,’ Kejriwal said in a tweet.

‘When this comes to the Rajya Sabha, it has to be ensured that it is not passed. I will meet the leaders of all political parties and ask for support,’ he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also said that it will host a ‘maha rally’ against the ‘black ordinance’ on June 11 at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi.

Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, had already met with Kejriwal to discuss the ordinance problem, and he offered the AAP his complete support in their dispute with the Centre over the matter.

The chief minister will be the only representation of the elected government in the National Capital Civil Service Authority, which is established by the federal ordinance. The authority would handle both the disciplinary cases against IAS and DANICS cadre officers as well as their transfer.

Within six months, Parliament must ratify the central ordinance. To accomplish this, the Centre must introduce a bill for approval by both Houses of Parliament.