In a big jolt to the Congress in Delhi ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from his post citing various issues including, alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and selection of party candidates for North West Delhi and North East Delhi parliamentary seats.

The shock resignation of Lovely less than a month before the seven seats of the national Capital go to polls, has put the grand old party’s Lok Sabha election campaign in limbo.  This was the second resignation by a former Minister to hit the Congress in the Capital in less than a week. Lovely was appointed as the Delhi Congress president on August 31, 2023.

In his resignation letter sent to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday, Lovely also said all unanimous decisions taken by the senior Delhi unit leaders have been “unilaterally vetoed” by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babria. Lovely also  claimed the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) was not given any intimation about the decision to field Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi seat and Udit Raj from North West Delhi seat before the official announcement was made by the party high command.

Kharge accepted the resignation of Lovely.

Later addressing a Press conference, Lovely said he has only resigned as chief of the Congress’ Delhi unit and is not joining any other political party.

His clarification came after Congress former MLA Asif Mohammad Khan claimed 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,” he said. Lovely said his resignation reflected the pain of Congress workers saddened by the fact that the “ideals they had been fighting for during the last seven to eight years” were being compromised.

In his letter, Lovely said several AAP Ministers have been jailed over corruption charges, still the Congress formed an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal’s party for the Lok Sabha elections amid opposition by party workers.

On instructions from AICC General Secretary (Organisation), I even went to the extent of visiting Kejriwal’s residence on the night of his Arrest along with Subash Chopra and Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter, Lovely said.

Lovely further said while he respected the party’s alliance decision with AAP, he was upset by Congress’s North East Delhi seat candidate Kanhaiya Kumar praising AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.

The resignation of Lovely, which is also shared on his social media account, brought into public domain the internal rift in the Delhi unit of the party.It also showed the discontent within the grand old party’s local unit over its alliance with foe-turned-friend Aam Aadmi Party.  The prevailing situation in Delhi Congress and its tie up with the AAP may impact the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi which will go to polls on May 25.   Talking to the pioneer, over dozen of Congress leaders said they will not be involve in the election process.

 Last week,  four time MLA and 15 years minister in the Sheila Dikshit regime in the national capital, Rajkumar Chauhan also resigned last week alleging that he was mistreated by a senior functionary when he questioned the basis on which the candidate for North West Delhi constituency was decided. According to party  insiders more than dozen of senior leaders and former MLAs are upset with the top leadership and they sidelined himself from the electioneering process.

He claimed that since his appointment as the president, the party’s Delhi In-charge has not allowed him to make any senior appointments in the DPCC. “However, since 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, Arvinder Singh Lovely, do hereby tender my resignation from the post of DPCC President,” he said.

Mentioning about the Congress-AAP alliance, Lovely said, “The Delhi Congress unit was against an alliance with a party which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress and in turn, whose half of the cabinet ministers are presently in jail on corruption charges. Despite that, the party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi.”

The Congress and AAP have formed alliances in Delhi and other states for the Lok Sabha elections. As per the seat sharing, the Congress is contesting in three and AAP in four out of the seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.

On selection of party candidates in Delhi, he said, “Out of these 3 seats, while rejecting the views of the PCC, all Observers and the local party workers, the North-West Delhi and North East Delhi seats were given to two candidates who were total ‘strangers’ to the Delhi Congress and the party policies.”

“It is the prerogative of the High Command to have a final say on the party candidates. However, shockingly, once the decision in regards to the aforesaid two candidates was made by the High Command, the PCC was not even intimated before the formal announcement,” Lovely said.

Kanhaiya Kumar is Congress candidate from North East Delhi LS seat and Udit Raj is party’s North-West Delhi parliamentary constituency.

He further said, “The candidate from North-East Delhi has also been giving media bytes falsely praising the Delhi CM (Arvind Kejriwal), in direct contravention of the party line and the local party workers’ beliefs. In direct contradiction to the true factual position and the misery of Delhi Citizens, he endorsed the false propaganda of AAP in regard to the supposed works done by them in the Education, Health, Road and Electricity sector.” Lovely accused Udit Raj of making “anti-party” statements in the press and disrespecting party workers. He claimed Raj had written several letters to him asking him to suspend various generational local party leaders.

“ In such a situation , 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, Arvinder Singh Lovely, tender my resignation from the post of DPCC president,” he said. In fact, he added, the alliance was a “compromise” to improve the chances of victory of the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

“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. My request for the appointment of a veteran leader as Media head of DPCC was blatantly rejected. To date, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed the DPCC to appoint all Block presidents in the city. Resultantly more than 150 blocks in Delhi do not presently have a Block President,” he said.

Lovely alleged that AICC in-charge Babria forced him to suspend senior party leader Raj Kumar Chauhan.”In direct contravention of my public democratic stand, the AICC general secretary (Delhi Incharge), distressingly, asked me to suspend Raj Kumar Chauhan (ex-Delhi Minister), Surender Kumar (ex-MLA) and other party functionaries from the party.

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

Meanwhile Lovely is not the only one to have bid adieu to the grand old party. Several prominent leaders including former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan, ex-Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Nirupam, spokesperson Gourav Vallabh, former social media head Rohan Gupta, Acharya Pramod Krishnam, former defense minister AK Antony’s son Anil Antony, and Gujarat Patidar leader Hardik Patel have also left the Congress.

The seat-sharing agreement for Lok Sabha polls between the INDIA bloc partners in Delhi, AAP and Congress, was finalised in February. The AAP is contesting four seats, while the Congress fielded candidates in three constituencies.The AAP is fighting in New Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi, and East Delhi, while Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi, and North West Delhi went to the Congress.

Earlier, the AAP had offered the Congress just one of the seven Lok Sabha seats, bringing the discussions into a deadlock.In the previous two Lok Sabha elections, held in 2014 and 2019, the BJP won all seven seats in Delhi, with a vote share exceeding 50 per cent.