The Congress party on Sunday vowed to support the Aam Aadmi Party against the Delhi ordinance in the parliament and hoped that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party would attend the opposition meet scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on Monday.
Announcing the decision, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal 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.”
Venugopal’s announcement came amidst several top Congress leaders from the Delhi unit urging the leadership to not support Kejriwal given his history of attacks against Sonia Gandhi and other leaders in the past.
Venugopal added, “Not only the Delhi ordinance, any attempt to sabotage federalism in the country, to intervene in matters of states through Governors, we are not going to support. Same way, Delhi ordinance also, we are not going to support.”
AAP MP Raghav Chadha was quick to welcome the Congress for its support as he tweeted, “Congress announces its unequivocal opposition to the Delhi Ordinance. This is a positive development.”
Opposition parties have been trying to stitch an alliance in a bid to oust Narendra Modi from power in the next year’s general elections. However, Kejriwal was reportedly adamant that he wouldn’t be a part of the alliance unless the Congress agrees to support it on the Delhi ordinance in the parliament. Several Congress leaders from Delhi had opposed the idea of supporting Kejriwal in light of his past statements demanding the arrest of Sonia Gandhi in corruption cases.
The AAP had ousted the Congress government in Delhi in 2013 by running a vicious campaign against the then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.