Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely Quits Post Over Alliance With AAP, Interference

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned as the president of the party’s Delhi unit on Sunday over its alliance with Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

He lamented that though several AAP ministers have been jailed over corruption charges, Congress forged an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal’s party for the Lok Sabha elections amid opposition by party workers.

In a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely said that since he cannot protect the interests of the Delhi Congress workers, he sees no reason to continue as the chief of city’s party unit.

“The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a party (AAP) which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and mala fide corruption charges against the Congress. Despite that, the party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi,” he said.

He said the party gave Lok Sabha tickets to candidates who were “total strangers” to the Delhi Congress unit, referring to Udit Raj’s candidature in North-west Delhi and Kanhaiya Kumar in Northeast Delhi.

The party high command’s decision to field Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj for the polls has caused friction among the party leaders in Delhi, sources said.

Lovely further 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 claimed.

It may be noted that Arvinder Singh Lovely had served in several ministerial roles under former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. In April 2017, he had joined the the BJP but after a short stint of nine months, he returned to Congress in February 2018.