After a long deadlock, Congress finally surrendered before the demands of the Aam Aadmi Party regarding the Union government’s ordinance on Delhi. On the 16th of July, Congress announced that it would back the Kejriwal-led party on this issue as the opposition parties get set to meet again.
Speaking to PTI, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that he is hopeful that the Aam Aadmi Party will join the opposition meeting to be held in Bengaluru tomorrow. He also cleared the Congress party’s stand on AAP’s precondition to join the opposition meeting. The Congress leader announced the party’s support for the Kejriwal-led political outfit on the issue of the Delhi ordinance.
He said, “I think they (AAP) are going to join the meeting tomorrow. As for the ordinance (on control of services in Delhi), our stand is very clear. We are not going to support it.”
VIDEO | "I think they (AAP) are going to join the meeting tomorrow. As for the ordinance (on control of services in Delhi), our stand is very clear. We are not going to support it," says Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on the opposition meet, scheduled to be held in… pic.twitter.com/YdeUZYmPG5
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 16, 2023
Responding to this AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha hailed this as a “positive development”.
Congress announces its unequivocal opposition to the Delhi Ordinance. This is a positive development.
— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) July 16, 2023
AAP had announced a meeting of its Political Affairs Committee (PAC) to decide its future course of action at 4 pm on 16 July. Apparently, after the Congress party’s open admission of support, the AAP’s PAC may decide to join the opposition meeting in Bengaluru.
AAP’s pressure tactics and Congress’ biding time
Earlier, AAP had threatened to boycott the opposition meeting citing the non-committal and vague stance of the Congress party on the Ordinance issue. Back then, AAP leaders had put preconditions before the Congress party to accept its invitation to join the second opposition meeting.
On the 7th of July, AAP leader Raghav Chadha hinted that they have paused any discussions to join the opposition meeting until the grand old party announces that it will not support the Union government’s ordinance on Delhi.
While the Congress party was biding its time, AAP senior leaders, including Delhi CM Kejriwal and Punjab CM Mann had been exerting pressure on the Congress party. In their Chattisgarh rally, both of them accused Congress’ state government of indulging in rampant corruption. Apart from threats to boycott the opposition meeting, AAP surprisingly announced its ‘in-principle’ support for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), an issue that has been testing the strength of opposition unity.
On their part, regional Congress leaders had been targeting the AAP government for adopting the ‘My way, highway’ kind of approach. Congress leader Abhishek Dutt accused AAP of using pressure tactics and advised AAP leaders to behave maturely.
However, this decision of Congress may not have a smooth sail and it may find resistance from its Delhi outfit which had advised the Central unit to not support Arvind Kejriwal on this issue.
Notably, the main issue in contention is an ordinance which the Union government passed on the 19th of May, 2023. The ordinance aimed to enact rules for the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) in relation to matters such as transfer posting, vigilance, and other related issues. AAP has been garnering support to block it in the Rajya Sabha, if and when the Union government tables it in the Parliament.
