Kejriwal to meet Mamata, seek support against Centre's Delhi ordinance

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal is set to meet his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, Mamata Banerjee, on Tuesday in Kolkata. Kejriwal, who will be accompanied by Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, is likely to discuss and seek Banerjee's support against the ordinance promulgated by the Centre to seize control of the national capital's administrative services.

• The ongoing tug-of-war between the Delhi government and the central government over power-sharing escalated this month after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the AAP government, reinstating the latter's control over Delhi's bureaucracy.
• To allegedly bypass the verdict, last week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre brought an ordinance to put bureaucrats above the CM, saying it would check the AAP's corruption.

After landing at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata on Monday afternoon, Kejriwal and Mann will meet AAP leaders from West Bengal. They will then visit the State Secretariat building, Nabanna, to have a closed-door meeting with Banerjee and leave Kolkata by evening. On Sunday, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar met Kejriwal and extended support for the AAP's fight against the Centre.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders from Delhi and Punjab, including Partap Singh Bajwa, Ajay Maken, and Sandeep Dikshit, met to discuss the ordinance. The party expressed solidarity with Delhi's AAP government despite the two being at loggerheads since Kejriwal unseated the Congress's Sheila Dikshit in 2013.

Kejriwal is also expected to meet Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Wednesday. He is drumming up support from other opposition parties to retain legislative and executive powers over services in Delhi. Notably, the Parliament has six months to ratify an ordinance after the Centre introduces a bill for passage in both Houses.