The AAP-led Delhi government received a major boost to its efforts to defeat the bill related to the Centre’s controversial ordinance on the control of Delhi’s administrative services after the Congress party cleared its stance on Sunday. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said the party’s stand is clear as it will oppose any such move by the Centre to intervene in states ruled by opposition parties through the governors and has decided to oppose the Delhi ordinance in Parliament whenever a bill comes up.

“We are consistently opposing the attempts of the Union government to sabotage federalism. We are consistently opposing the attitude of the central government to run the opposition states through the governors. Our stand is very clear, we are not going to support the Delhi ordinance,” he told PTI.

Venugopal said the Congress usually convenes its parliamentary strategy committee meeting just before a session to decide on important matters coming up in Parliament.

“Yesterday, we had a meeting and we already made the decision,” he said when asked whether the Congress will support or oppose the Delhi ordinance.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had been meeting several opposition leaders separately to garner support against the ordinance and had received assurance from almost all of them. However, opposition from the state units of Congress had AAP worried and Kejriwal’s party threatened to boycott the crucial meeting of non-BJP parties in Bengaluru.

With Congress now on board, AAP can hope to defeat the bill in Rajya Sabha where BJP is not in the majority. However, it still could prove to be an uphill task since the central government had managed to pass several controversial bills despite strong opposition in Rajya Sabha, including the three farm laws.

List of parties backing AAP on the ordinance issue:

• Congress
• Trinamool Congress
• Bharat Rashtra Samithi
• Samajwadi Party
• Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
• Communist Party of India
• Communist Party of India (Marxist)
• Shiv Sena (UBT)
• Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction)
• Janata Dal (United)
• Rashtriya Janata Dal
• Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

The Delhi government has also mounted a legal challenge to the ordinance in the Supreme Court. Seeking a stay on the ordinance, the Delhi government said it shows contempt for the elected government by making a pretence of involving the CM as part of a new body called the National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA) created under the ordinance. It said the ordinance violates the federal, democratic governance envisaged for the Delhi government under Article 239AA of the Constitution.