Former Home Minister P Chidambaram is the star lawyer representing the Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal government in its fight against the Lieutenant Governor in the Supreme Court over the differences in administrative authority.
Confirming the news, Chidambaram, himself a top lawyer, told NDTV, “I don’t think the Constitution makes the Lieutenant Governor supreme and the Government of National Council Territory of Delhi a toothless body.”
AAP’s Rahul Mehra too tweeted confirming the news.
On Thursday the Supreme Court had observed that though the LG appeared to have primacy under the Constitution and the Delhi government could not act without his consent, ‘He (L-G) must exercise his power in reasonable time with reasons.’
Reacting to the news of Chidambaram representing the Kejriwal government, the Congress party was quick to remind the Delhi CM about his vicious attacks against the former during his time as a cabinet minister in the UPA government.
Congress party’s Delhi unit’s chief, Ajay Maken taunted, “Congratulations! .@PChidambaram_IN -You have been exonerated by your one time critic @ArvindKejriwal and AAP! Would AAP now apologise!?”
Congratulations! .@PChidambaram_IN -You have been exonerated by your one time critic @ArvindKejriwal and AAP!
Would AAP now apologise!? pic.twitter.com/cPU3MThrvj
— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) November 3, 2017
Senior Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee tweeted, “After calling Mr.Chidambaram most corrupt & anti-people, shameless AAP wants 2 avail his services! Did @ArvindKejriwal go 2 brief him?”
After calling Mr.Chidambaram most corrupt & anti-people, shameless AAP wants 2 avail his services! Did @ArvindKejriwal go 2 brief him? pic.twitter.com/IUOLBEPi0C
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) November 3, 2017
Other lawyers hired by the AAP government include Gopal Subramaniam, who opened the argument on Thursday, Indira Jaising, and Rajiv Dhawan.
On Chidambaram, Jaising said, “It is very healthy that he is appearing and it isn’t the first time.”
In January 2014, Kejriwal had put out a list of most corrupt politicians that included P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, A Raja, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh, P Chidambaram, Suresh Kalmadi, Jagan M Reddy, Kamal Nath, Sharad Pawar, Nitin Gadkari, Sushilkumar Shinde, Veerappa Moily, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Pawan Bansal, Naveen Jindal, Shriprakash Jaiwal, B Yeddyurappa, Anurag Thakur, Tarun Gogoi, Anu Tandon, Salman Khurshid, Avtar Singh Bhadana, GK Vassan, HD Kumaraswamy, MK Alagiri, Praful Patel and Ananth Kumar.