Nitish Kumar meets Kejriwal in Delhi, assures support to AAP govt

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday met his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal at the latters residence here and extended complete support to him in the AAP governments ongoing tussle with the Centre over the control of administrative servicesKumar was accompanied by his deputy and RJD leader Tejashwi YadavThe Centre promulgated the ordinance on Friday to create a National Capital Civil Service Authority for transfer of IAS and DANICS cadre officers and disciplinary proceedings against themThis came a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services excluding those related to police public order and land to the elected government in DelhiAlso Read Aaditya Thackeray meets AAP national convenor Arvind KejriwalSpeaking to reporters after the meeting Kejriwal said he will personally reach out to the chiefs of all opposition parties to seek their support in the matter so that any bill brought by the Centre to replace the ordinance is defeated in Rajya SabhaDay after tomorrow Tuesday I have a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata at 3 pm After that I will meet every partys president to seek their formal support for defeating the bill when it comes in Rajya Sabha Kejriwal saidI have also requested Nitish Kumar ji to talk to all the opposition parties in this regard he addedAn ordinance has to be ratified by Parliament within six monthsKejriwal said if the bill is defeated in Rajya Sabha it will send out the message that the BJP will lose the 2024 Lok Sabha electionsIt will be the semifinal of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls the AAP national convenor told reportersThe National Capital Civil Service Authority will comprise the chief minister of the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi as its chairperson along with chief secretary and principal secretary home who will be the member secretary to the authorityNotwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force the National Capital Civil Service Authority shall have the responsibility to recommend the transfers and postings of all the Group A officers and officers of DANICS serving in the affairs of the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi but not officers serving in connection with any subject matter the ordinance readKumar criticised the Centre for promulgating the ordinance after the Supreme Court verdict in the matter and assured that he will make efforts to bring opposition parties together in support of KejriwalWhen asked the Janta Dal United leader said he will also speak to the Congress leadership on the issueI dont think anybody will oppose it We will talk to them he saidKejriwal was among the few nonBJP chief ministers who were not invited by the Congress to the swearingin ceremony of its new government in Karnataka on Saturday an event which was seen as a show of strength by opposition partiesKumar on the other hand had attended the eventExtending his partys support to Kejriwal Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Yadav alleged the Centre is continuously troubling and harassing nonBJP governments in different statesWe have come here to extend our support to Kejriwal The BJP government is doing injustice to him he saidYadav said the way the Centre is harassing the Kejriwal dispensation in Delhi and governments of other parties in different states is not justified at allThere is a clear threat to democracy They want to change the Constitution and we will not let that happen at all he claimedThe more they Centre trouble and harass Kejriwal the stronger he will become I can say with full confidence that the BJP will never return to power in Delhi he addedSundays meeting was the second between Kumar and Kejriwal in over a month Kumar had earlier met Kejriwal here on April 12 as part of his efforts to bring all opposition parties together ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha electionsWith Kejriwals relations with the Congress far from smooth Kumar has the task of building some kind of a working relationship between the two as he also sees the grand old party as critical to any Opposition unity bidThe AAP has grown in Delhi and Punjab by occupying the space once largely seen as Congress territory A section of Congress leaders believe that reclaiming the constituency is the key to the partys revival in these states and any compromise on it can hamper their plansKumar has been meeting regional satraps as part of the unity exercise which is yet to take a concrete shapeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever