BJD stance tilts RS balance as Delhi bill is introduced in LS

NEW DELHI: The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, and with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) indicating its support for the legislation on the floor of the house, its passage in the Rajya Sabha, never really in doubt, is now a certainty

Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai introduced the contentious bill-it replaces an ordinance that effectively overrides a Supreme Court judgment and gives the Centre control over Delhi's bureaucracy in the Lok Sabha, where it is expected to sail through, given the NDA's brute majority.

The BJD's support to the BJPled National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) on the bill is crucial as its nine MPs will take the number of those supporting the bill in the Upper House to 123. In the 245-member house, the majority mark is 120 as some seats are vacant. The Opposition grouping, Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), has 107 MPs, including seven of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). The YSR Congress Party with nine Rajya Sabha MPS has already confirmed its support for the bill.

Union home minister Amit Shah dismissed the Opposition's efforts to question the government's legislative competence to bring the bill, saying it was a "political" move. He cited a paragraph in the Constitution bench's May 11 verdict. which handed the charge of the Capital's bureaucracy to the elected government, excluding departments connected to police, public order and land.

"The legislative assembly of NCTD has competence over entries in List II and List III except for the expressly excluded entries of List II. In addition to the Entries in List I, Parliament has legislative competence over all matters in List II and List III in relation to NCTD, including the entries which have been kept out of the legislative domain of NCTD by virtue of Article 239AA(3)(a)," the verdict's Para 164 [c] said.

The ordinance has inflamed the tussle between the elected Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the centrally appointed lieutenant governor over control of the national capital.