New Delhi: All eyes were on President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday over the decision he takes on the controversial ordinance that seeks to save convicted lawmakers from disqualification, with more parties meeting him to express opposition and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi also slamming the move.
A day after a Bharatiya Janata Party delegation met the president and urged him not to sign the ordinance approved by the government, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) delegation met Mukherjee on Friday with a similar demand.
"We told the President that the ordinance is against the wish of the people and urged him not to sign it," AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal told reporters after the meeting.
After meeting the BJP leaders on Thursday, Mukherjee later also met Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Law Minister Kapil Sibal and is learnt to have sought clarifications on the ordinance.
Meanwhile, adding to the uncertainty, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday strongly slammed his own government`s move.
Making a dramatic appearance at Press Club of India here, Gandhi said the government was "wrong" in preparing an ordinance and that, in his opinion, "it is completely nonsense and should be torn up and thrown away".
Congress sources said that the government is unlikely to push with the ordinance now and may withdraw it. They said the decision to withdraw the ordinance could be taken after prime minister`s return from his visit to the US or even earlier.
They said that the President may not take a decision on the Ordinance till the Prime Minister`s return.
The ordinance, approved by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday, reverses the Supreme Court judgment mandating the immediate disqualification of lawmakers convicted for a criminal offence punishable with a jail term of more than two years.
IANS
