New Delhi: Amid the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress faced a big setback in Delhi as the party's state president, Arvinder Singh Lovely, resigned from his post. In his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, he cited the alliance with Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) for the Lok Sabha election 2024 for his resignation. Lovely said that the Delhi Congress unit opposed the alliance with a party that had levied false, fabricated, and malicious corruption allegations against the party and despite this opposition, the party proceeded to form an alliance with AAP in the national capital.
Lovely said that he feels "handicapped and unable to continue as the president of the Delhi Congress unit" for several reasons he listed in his resignation letter.
Interference from party general secretary in-charge
Lovely also alleged that several decisions taken by him as the Delhi Congress Chief were vetoed by the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge). "Since my appointment as DPCC President, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed me to make any senior appointments in the DPCC," he said.
The primary reason behind Lovely's resignation is his dissatisfaction with Delhi Congress in-charge Deepak Bawaria. Recently, Sandeep Dikshit opposed the ticket given to Kanhaiya Kumar in a meeting chaired by Deepak Bawaria. Subsequently, in another meeting regarding Udit Raj, former minister Rajkumar Chauhan also opposed Udit Raj. Following these events, Rajkumar Chauhan resigned, citing Deepak Bawaria as the reason for his resignation.
Lovely's attention was on Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj concerning the selection of candidates from outside Delhi for two seats in the capital. He expressed dissatisfaction with the candidates not being informed before their announcement. It's worth noting that Congress has nominated Kanhaiya Kumar for the North-East Delhi seat, while Udit Raj has been given the ticket for North-West Delhi.
According to the source, Lovely was not in favour of granting tickets to Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj. He believed that Congress workers would not support Kanhaiya Kumar. Instead, Lovely advocated for giving a ticket to Rajkumar Chauhan from North West Delhi.
Lovely, who was appointed to the post in August 2023, said that since he cannot protect the interests of the Party Workers, he sees no reason to continue in the said post.
Lovely on alliance with AAP
Lovely also highlighted Congress's alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, stating that the entire state unit was against it.
"The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a Party which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress Party. Despite that, the Party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi. We respected the Party's final decision. Not only did I publicly back the decision, I also ensured that the full State Unit fell in line with the High Command's final order. On instructions from AICC General Secretary (Organisation), I even went to the extent of visiting Kejriwal's residence on the night of his Arrest along with Subash Chopra and Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter," he said in his resignation letter.
He also pointed out that pursuant to the alliance, the Delhi Congress was allotted three parliamentary seats to fight in the present General Elections. The Congress leader also highlighted the North-East Delhi candidate (Kanhaiya Kumar) has been giving media bytes “falsely” praising the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and endorsed the works done by the AAP in the education, health, road and electricity sectors.
"Such ill-thought and factually incorrect statements have not gone down well with the Local Party Unit since, the local party workers had an inherent understanding that the alliance was not done in appreciation of AAP's false propaganda of the development of Delhi and was in fact, a "compromise- to improve the chances of victory for the Party as part of the National Alliance," Lovely said.
Lovely further added that "since he couldn't protect the interests of the party workers, he saw no reason to continue in the said post."
AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi
Notably, the Congress-AAP are contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi in alliance. The AAP will be contesting on four seats while three have been allotted to Congress. The four seats on which AAP will contest the Lok Sabha polls are New Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi, and East Delhi. The Congress will contest on North West Delhi, North East Delhi and Chandni Chowk seats.
During each of the three successive terms of the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress governments in the Capital between 1998 and 2013, Lovely was one of the key figures in the cabinet. Later in 2015, Lovely was asked to resign from his position as the party’s Delhi president, which led to his departure from the Congress. He briefly joined the BJP for nine months before returning to the Congress.
