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Delhi services Ordinance row: Congress leaders from Delhi, Punjab meet Kharge, Rahul; sources say party may not support AAP

Congress leaders from Delhi and Punjab met the party leadership in New Delhi in separate meetings on Monday, and asked them not to support the Aam Aadmi Party on the Delhi services Ordinance issue, sources said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had convened a meeting of leaders from both States on seeking their opinion on the matter. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was also present during the meetings.

The sources said a majority of the leaders told the leadership to have no truck with Arvind Kejriwal, calling him a ‘B-team’ of the BJP and claiming he harmed the Congress’ interests not only in Delhi and Punjab but other States as well.

Sources said the meeting comes in the wake of Kejriwal requesting a meeting with Kharge and Gandhi to seek their support against an Ordinance brought by the Centre which effectively nullified a Supreme Court order that gave to the Delhi government the power to transfer bureaucrats in the city.

Kharge has reportedly conveyed to Kejriwal he will take a call on the matter after having a word with State party leaders. The sources said the Congress leadership will also meet party leaders from other States before deciding its position. Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring told reporters after the meeting they have put across their views before the party high command and left the final decision to it.

“All the leaders have said the party high command will decide and we have left it to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge to take the final decision,” Raja Warring told reporters after the meeting.

Former party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu said what transpired during the meeting was a secret and only the Congress chief or Rahul Gandhi would divulge the details. He, however, said India’s Constitution is a sacred ‘granth’ and he took inspiration from it. “But, I can say emphatically that the values of the Constitution are at its lowest ebb,” he said, citing instances where the Centre “trampled upon” the Constitution.