Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday extended support to the Aam Aadmi Party against an ordinance that allows the Union government to have control over bureaucrats in Delhi.

On May 19, the Centre had promulgated the ordinance to create the National Capital Civil Service Authority to administer the transfer and posting of bureaucrats serving the Delhi government.

The ordinance nullified the May 11 Supreme Court verdict that the Aam Aadmi Party government in the national capital has legislative power over bureaucrats excluding the departments of public order, police and land.

A delegation of Aam Aadmi Party leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, met Yadav at Lucknow on Wednesday. In a press conference after the meeting, the Samajwadi Party chief described the ordinance as anti-democratic.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party does not like the good work that you [Aam Aadmi Party] have done in the fields of education and health,” Yadav said. “If there is anyone who is destroying the good work being done in the country, it is the BJP.”

The Samajwadi Party chief said that all members of his party will support the Kejriwal-led outfit in its opposition to the ordinance.

Also read: Centre’s ordinance on Delhi bureaucrats bypasses parliament, promotes its own political interests

Kejriwal has been holding meetings with leaders of Opposition parties to garner support against the ordinance. Since ordinances cease to exist if not approved by Parliament within six weeks of convening, the Centre will need to introduce a bill in the upcoming Monsoon Session to get legal status for its move.

The Aam Aadmi Party has urged Opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP only has 93 members in a House of 238, to vote against the bill when it is introduced.

Till now, nine parties, including the Samajwadi Party, have expressed support to the Kejriwal-led party. The other parties are the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Trinamool Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Nationalist Congress Party and Janata Dal (United).

The Congress, which currently has 31 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, has not yet decided on whether to support the Aam Aadmi Party.