Arvinder Singh Lovely quits as Delhi Congress chief over choice of 'total strangers' as Lok Sabha candidates, denies joining any other party

In a letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely said that the local unit of the party was against AAP but went with the central leadership's decision to go into an alliance with them.

New Delhi: Putting Congress’ preparations for Lok Sabha elections in the capital in disarray, senior leader Arvinder Singh Lovely has quit as its Delhi chief protesting against party in-charge Deepak Babaria and objecting to the choice and conduct of two candidates who are “total strangers” to party workers.

Soon after, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge tasked Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal to sort out issues in Delhi, especially against the backdrop of upcoming elections and ensure that all work together to ensure the victory of I.N.D.I.A candidates in the capital.

The rebellion by Lovely, a former minister in Sheila Dikshit government who returned to Congress after a brief stint in BJP, is the culmination of the simmering uneasiness in the party over the alliance with AAP and objections on candidate selection “rejecting” Delhi Congress’ views.

Lovely told reporters that he has only resigned as Delhi Congress president and is “not joining any party” even as a former Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Khan claimed that he is headed the BJP way and the saffron party would field him from the East Delhi seat replacing Harsh Malhotra.

In his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday and in his four page letter, he lashed out at Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria for not taking the Delhi leadership into confidence and his run-ins with ticket aspirants like Sandeep Dikshit and Raj Kumar Chouhan in meetings.

He was also critical of North-West Delhi candidate Udit Raj for his “derogatory” comments against cadre and North-East Delhi nominee Kanhaiya Kumar for his bytes praising AAP’s governance and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He said the alliance was not an endorsement of AAP but because of a reading that it could improve the party’s prospects.

Having taken over as party Delhi president in August last year, he said, his sole objective was to support local workers with whom he has an “extremely close connection” and since he “cannot protect” their interests, he sees “no reason to continue” in the post.

Reminding Kharge that the Delhi unit was against any tie-up with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, he said they, however, "respected" the central leadership's decision and that he “ensured that the full state unit fell in line” with the decision.

“On the instruction from the Congress General Secretary (Organisation), I even went to the extent of visiting (Arvind) Kejriwal's residence on the night of his arrest along with Subhash Chopra and Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter,” he said.

In a scathing attack on Babaria, he said the in-charge “unilaterally” vetoed all “unanimous decisions” taken by Delhi leaders and that he did not allow him to make appointments. His request for appointing a veteran leader as media in-charge was turned down, he said.

Admitting that the party High Command had the final say in candidate selection, he said he had publicly withdrawn from the race to allow senior Delhi leaders to get tickets, it was given to “total strangers to the Delhi Congress and party policies”.

He also said it was shocking that the High Command did not even bother to inform about the candidates before formal announcement so that he could take steps to ensure that there is no trouble.

When the candidates were introduced at a press conference, he said, there were protests and he tried to pacify them but he did not get any help from Babaria. Instead, he alleged Babaria wanted immediate suspension of Rajkumar Chauhan, Surender Kumar and others.

“He, instead of calming the situation, further also, in public meetings, entered into numerous heated exchanges with Sandeep Dikshit (ex-MP), Raj Kumar Chauhan (former minister), Bhisham Sharma (ex-MLA) and Surender Kumar (ex-MLA),” he said.

Targeting North-West Delhi candidate Udit Raj, who left BJP to join Congress after he was denied ticket in 2019, he said, “if the situation was not already bad”, Raj made it “worse” by making “derogatory and anti-party statements” besides “disrespecting” workers. He also said Udit Raj wanted several leaders to be suspended.

On Kanhaiya, he said the youth leader has been giving media bytes “falsely praising” Kejriwal in contravention to the party line and cadre's “beliefs”. He claimed Kumar endorsed the “false propaganda” of AAP on education, health, road and electricity sector.

Lovely said Kumar's “ill-thought and factually incorrect statements” have not gone down well as cadre is of the view that the alliance is done in appreciation of AAP's “false propaganda” but to “improve” the party's chances of victory.