In a big setback for the Congress party amid the Lok Sabha polls, senior leader Arvinder Singh Lovely has resigned from his position as the party’s Delhi unit chief. Citing the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a primary reason, Lovely said that the Delhi Congress unit was opposed to the alliance, but the party high command proceeded with it against their wishes.
Lovely was appointed as the Delhi Congress chief in August last year.
In his resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely said that all unanimous decisions taken by the senior Delhi unit leaders have been “unilaterally vetoed” by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babria.
“It is with a heavy heart that I write the present letter to you finding myself handicapped and unable to continue as the President of the Delhi Party Unit,” Lovely said.
“I had gratefully accepted the role as the DPCC President with the sole objective of supporting the local Congress party workers with whom I have an extremely close connection and life-long association. However, since I cannot protect the interests of the party workers, I see no reason to continue in the said post. Therefore, with great regret and an extremely leaden heart, I, Arvinder Singh Lovely, do hereby tender my resignation from the post of DPCC President,” he added.
Lovely said even though the Delhi Congress unit was against the alliance with the AAP, he publicly backed it and made sure that the entire unit “fell in line with the high command’s final order”.
“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… half of the cabinet ministers (of the party) are presently in jail on corruption charges.
“Despite that, the party (Congress) made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi. We respected the party’s final decision… I even went to the extent of visiting Mr. Kejriwal’s residence on the night of his arrest along with Mr Subash Chopra and Mr Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter,” he said.
Lovely also expressed dissatisfaction with Congress North East Delhi candidate Kanhaiya Kumar’s praise for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, currently in Tihar jail over money laundering ‘scam’ case.
“The candidate from North-East Delhi has also been giving media bytes falsely praising the Delhi CM, in direct contravention of the party line and the local party workers’ beliefs.
“In direct contradiction to the true factual position and the misery of Delhi Citizens, he endorsed the false propaganda of AAP in regard to the supposed works done by them in education, health, road and electricity sectors,” he said.
“Such ill-thought and factually incorrect statements have not gone down well” with the Delhi Congress 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,” he said.
In fact, he added, the alliance was a “compromise” to improve the chances of victory of the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.
“It appears that the North East Delhi candidate is unaware of the fact that admittedly, the condition of schools, hospitals and public infrastructure in Delhi, under the AAP rule, has severely worsened as compared to the development work done under the late Sheila Dikshit Ji’s Congress regime,” Lovely said.
The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are part of the INDIA bloc, a coalition formed by opposition parties to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In Delhi, the AAP is contesting four Lok Sabha seats, while the Congress has candidates in three constituencies.
The BJP had secured victory in all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in both the 2014 and 2019 general elections.
Lovely also criticised the alleged interference by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babria, saying that unanimous decisions by senior Delhi Congress leaders were “unilaterally vetoed”.
“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. My request for appointment of a veteran leader as media head of DPCC was blatantly rejected. Till date, AICC general secretary (Delhi in-charge) has not allowed the DPCC to appoint all block presidents in the city. Resultantly, more than 150 blocks in Delhi do not presently have a block president,” he said.
Arvinder Singh Lovely began his political career by being elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Gandhi Nagar constituency in 1998. During his tenure, he held prominent ministerial portfolios in the Congress-led government in Delhi, serving as the Minister of Transport, Education, Urban Development, and Revenue.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party nominated Lovely as its candidate from the East Delhi constituency. He contested against Gautam Gambhir from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Atishi from the AAP.