Devender Yadav named Delhi Congress chief after Arvinder Singh Lovely's resignation

New Delhi: Sending clear signals to leaders that it will not brook any discontent during Lok Sabha polls, Congress on Tuesday appointed Devendra Yadav as interim president of its Delhi unit within three days of Arvinder Singh Lovely’s resignation over party’s alliance with AAP and its candidate selection.

Yadav (52), a former MLA, is presently the party in-charge in Punjab and a Congress communique issued by General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said he will continue to hold this responsibility along with the assignment in Delhi.

The names of Congress SC Department head Rajesh Lilothia and young leader Abhishek Dutt were also doing the rounds for the post.

Lovely had on Saturday sent in his resignation to party president Mallikarjun Kharge protesting against party in-charge and objecting to the choice and conduct of two candidates who are “total strangers” to party workers.

His resignation was the culmination of the simmering uneasiness in the party over the alliance with AAP and objections on candidate selection “rejecting” Delhi Congress’ views.

Congress had reacted strongly against Lovely saying his actions at a crucial juncture when the party was in the midst of elections. Within hours of his letter, the party leadership accepted it and initiated discussions to ensure that the party’s election preparations do not go out of gear.

While some Delhi Congress and AAP leaders have claimed that he is headed to the BJP, Lovely said he has only resigned from the post and not the party and some people are indulging in activities intended to force him to leave Congress.

Lovely’s resignation has given voice to a section of the Congress who are against an alliance with the AAP and the central leadership does not want that to get this message amplified at a time the party is struggling to get the cadre work with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.

Sources said Lovely’s public assertion about his opposition to an alliance with AAP does not hold water because he was specifically told about his assignment to prepare the cadre for it. They said he himself acknowledged in his resignation letter that he had ensured that there were no problems.

Suddenly finding issues with the alliance could be because he was overlooked for the candidature from the North East Delhi seat, sources said. They claimed though he had publicly withdrawn from the race for the seat, the screening committee sent only his name for the seat, suggesting that he was still keen to fight.

However, they admitted that several cadres in the capital do share the sentiments in Lovely’s letter about the alliance with AAP and the candidature of Udit Raj and Kanhaiya Kumar.