Delhi ordinance issue becomes testing ground for Opposition unity

The ordinance clipping the wings of Delhi government is testing Opposition unity within and outside Parliament, even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday began his ‘yatra’ seeking support to defeat the Modi government’s move with a visit to Kolkata to meet his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee.

The Opposition believes that they have a chance to “defeat the ruling BJP even before 2024 Lok Sabha elections” provided BJD and YSR Congress join them to vote against the Bill to replace the ordinance in Rajya Sabha, though the Congress is yet to publicly announce its support for the move as its Delhi and Punjab leaders are vehemently opposed to supporting Kejriwal.

The Opposition bloc wants to make it a psychological battle on the floor of the Parliament to corner the BJP on something the latter has made a prestige issue as well as a litmus test for the fence-sitters BJD and YSR Congress on taking a stand against the ruling dispensation, which it regularly saves when in trouble.

Also Read | Mamata assures support to Kejriwal in fight against central ordinance

In Rajya Sabha where the Opposition plans a showdown, a united Opposition has the support of 106 MPs while the NDA is assured of 112. The ruling BJP is banking on 20 others – nine each from BJD and YSR Congress and one each from BSP and JD(S) – to save itself from the blushes.

Mamata, the Trinamool Congress supremo, offered her unstinted support to Kejriwal during the meeting to defeat the ordinance and urged all parties to join hands in the endeavour, even as Kejriwal is headed next to Mumbai where he would meet Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray and NCP’s Sharad Pawar.

“We will oppose the ordinance…BJP wants to control the judiciary. I urge all parties to come together to defeat the Bill in Rajya Sabha,” Mamata told reporters in Kolkata.

Kejriwal said after the meeting, “we have been fighting this for eight years and in eight days, they brought an ordinance. The BJP is turning democracy into a joke. I thank Didi (Mamata) for the support. If we can defeat the Bill in Rajya Sabha, it is a semifinal before the 2024 polls.”

This episode comes at a time the Opposition is cobbling up a united front to take on the BJP but it has also exposed the grandstanding and posturing among the parties. Kejriwal is yet to formally reach out to the Congress, though he has flown to Kolkata and later to Mumbai besides meeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

Congress is a divided house over the issue though the central leadership is not averse to support the AAP in the fight against the ordinance. The party was welcomed when the Supreme Court ordered in favour of the AAP.

The dilemma of the party was well articulated in Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal’s tweet on Monday night when he said a decision would be taken after consulting its state units and other parties. Sources said Congress cannot support the ordinance in Parliament and would eventually come around on a question of federal structure.

Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken in a long tweet opposed any move to support the AAP in fights saying the Kejriwal-led party stood with the BJP in passing a resolution to take back the Bharat Ratna awarded to Rajiv Gandhi. He also said the move to give control of bureaucrats to the Delhi government goes against the spirit of the Constitution.