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After attending the party’s political affairs committee meeting at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, AAP MP Raghav Chadha told reporters: “Today, Congress party cleared its position against Delhi Ordinance.We welcome the announcement. Along with this, AAP will attend the opposition meet in Bengaluru.”
Quid pro quo
There had been speculation over whether the AAP would attend the meeting being hosted by the Congress given that the two parties were at loggerheads over the Delhi ordinance issue. Till Sunday morning, the Congress had not made its stance clear on the matter.
However, the grand old party announced in the afternoon that it will not support the Centre’s ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi and will oppose any such attempt of the central government to “sabotage federalism” in the country.
“We are consistently opposing the attempts of the Union government to sabotage federalism. We are consistently opposing the attitude of the central government to run the opposition states through the governors. Our stand is very clear, we are not going to support the Delhi ordinance,” said Congress general secretary K C Venugopal.
The AAP said the Congress’ “unequivocal opposition” to the Delhi ordinance was “a positive development”. Reacting to Venugopal’s remarks, Chadha had tweeted, “Congress announces its unequivocal opposition to the Delhi Ordinance. This is a positive development.”
Hours later, AAP announced that it will attend the joint meeting in Bengaluru.
JD(U) welcomes AAP’s decision
Welcoming AAP’s decision, JD(U) leader Khalid Anwar said: “We welcome their decision. This shows that the Congress truly respects the Constitution of the country.”
JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was one of the first leaders to lend his support to AAP’s fight against the Delhi ordinance, he is also said to be the main force trying to get the AAP and the Congress on the same platform.
Meeting may decide name for new alliance
This will be the second meeting of more than a dozen opposition parties as they seek to chalk out a joint strategy to take on the BJP unitedly in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The first meeting of 16 parties was held in Patna.
The meeting might see the formation of three working groups that will draft a common agenda for opposition parties with the Lok Sabha polls in mind. The meeting is also likely to decide a common name for the opposition alliance and discuss seat-sharing arrangements among themselves.
Sonia Gandhi will also host a dinner for opposition leaders on the eve of the meeting, which will be attended by Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and other senior functionaries.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Saleem Ahmed said several leaders, including TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayanat Choudhary have confirmed their participation in Bengaluru.
(With inputs from agencies)
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