Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely resigns, says he was against partnership with AAP

Senior Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely on Sunday resigned from his post as president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee saying that he had found himself “handicapped and unable to continue” as all unanimous decisions taken by the Delhi Congress have been unilaterally vetoed by the AICC general secretary (Delhi In-charge) Deepak Babaria. Mr. Lovely made it clear that he was only resigning from his post and not quitting the party.

Also Read | Lok Sabha polls 2024 LIVE updates

Mr. Babaria said that the high command has accepted Mr. Lovely’s resignation.

In a four-page letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr. Lovely highlighted a string of issues the local unit was up against in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, including the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), selection of “outsiders” as candidates and Mr. Babaria not allowing him to function.

Mr. Lovely said that the Delhi unit had been against an alliance with the AAP which was formed on the “sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges” against the Congress party. However, once the party made the decision to align with them, he ensured that the State unit fell in-line with the decision, he noted. The AAP and the Congress are fighting four and three seats each of the seven Lok Sabha seats in the capital as INDIA bloc partners to defeat the BJP.

However, he said that “the party high command rejected the views of the Delhi Congress, observers and local party workers on the North West Delhi and North East Delhi seats, giving it to Udit Raj and Kanhaiya Kumar, respectively, who were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and the party policies”.

He added that it was the prerogative of AICC to have a final say on candidates but the Delhi Congress was not even informed of the decision before the formal announcement.

When protests erupted among party workers last week over the North West Delhi candidate, Mr. Lovely said that he tried to diffuse the situation to prevent any unrest within. However, Mr. Babaria asked him to suspend Raj Kumar Chauhan (former Minister) and other party functionaries who were protesting against the candidature of Mr. Raj, thereby escalating the situation, he clarified. He added that Mr. Kumar was “giving media bytes falsely praising the Delhi Chief Minister in direct contravention of the party line and the local party workers’ beliefs”.

“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 tender my resignation from the post of DPCC President,” the letter read.