Hours after dropping his resignation, Arvinder Singh Lovely on Sunday said that he has only resigned as the chief of the Congress’ Delhi unit and is not joining any other political party. His statement came following claims by Congress ex-MLA Asif Mohammad Khan suggesting that the BJP would field Lovely from the East Delhi constituency, replacing Harsh Malhotra.
“I have only resigned as Delhi Congress chief and I am not joining any political party,” Lovely said at a press conference held at his residence.
Lovely asserted that his resignation reflects the concerns of Congress workers, who are distressed by the compromise of the ideals they have been fighting for over the last seven to eight years.
“We are fighting the elections together but never did the Congress workers say that we are giving a clean chit to them or giving them credit for building schools and hospitals, which is far from the reality,” Lovely said, referring to the party’s tie-up with the AAP in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls.
In a blow to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Lovely stepped down as the party’s Delhi unit chief, citing the alliance with the AAP as one of the reasons. He highlighted that the Delhi Congress unit was against the alliance, but the party high command proceeded with it.
“The Delhi Congress unit was against an alliance with a party which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and mala fide corruption charges against the Congress party … half of the cabinet ministers (of the party) are presently in jail on corruption charges,” he said in his resignation letter sent to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday.
“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 (Arvind) 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.