The shock resignation of Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh 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. The resignation brought the party’s factional feud into the open, with a section of leaders on Sunday demanding the removal of AICC in-charge Deepak Babaria.
Lovely, in his resignation letter sent to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, and 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. While the Aam Aadmi Party termed it as an internal matter of the Congress.
As the news of Lovely resignation spread, some party workers gathered outside Lovely’s residence and raised slogans against AICC’s Delhi in-charge Babaria who, meanwhile, stressed that all DPCC leaders were taken into confidence on the alliance issue and Lovely should have aired his views before the party panels. “Ahead of forming the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, the DPCC leaders and workers were taken into confidence.
“He (Lovely) was part of all the committees and panels; he should have raised his objections back then. Anyone who distances themselves from any party or posts tends to find a reason to do so,” Babaria told reporters.
Reacting to the development former Delhi minister and four time MLA from Mangolpuri, Rajkumar Chauhan, who resigned from the party on Wednesday, in a video, addressed to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, urged him to remove Deepak Babaria, incharge of Delhi affairs post while supporting the decision of Lovely.
“Lovely has resigned. I have also resigned. The Delhi in-charge told me to get out of a meeting. Remove Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria from Delhi and save Congress,” said Chauhan adding Babaria can not win an election and he is not only dictating but also humiliated senior Congress leaders. “It seems Babaria was appointed as Delhi Congress in charge to destroy the party,” he said.Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit empathised with Lovely over his resignation from the post and said, “Being the Congress President and a Congress worker, he (Arvinder Singh Lovely) has a personal pain. His pain is that we are struggling to bring back our old reputation in Delhi. Becoming the President of Congress is a crown of thorns. Despite this, he worked hard in the last 6-8 months and built the party.” Dikshit also went to the residence of Lovely to meet him.
Further he said that everyone felt that Congress is slowly gaining its old reputation back. “Everyone felt that Congress is slowly awakening and when we get 2 or 3 seats, it seems that if we give seats to people with the consent of all the people of Congress, then the work will go better in the future,” Dikshit said.
Party leader Subhash Chopra claimed that it is their internal party matter and said, “I asked him what was the reason that he resigned (from the post of Delhi Congress chief). He said all the reasons have been sent to the party president. It is our party’s internal matter and we will resolve it through discussion. He said he has only resigned from the post, not from the party.”
Former Congress MLA Neeraj Basoya said, “Lovely has resigned after seeing the sentiments of the Congress workers. Babaria’s style of functioning has created problems everywhere, be it Delhi or Haryana, and all the workers are angry.”
Congress leader Jai Kishan said this is not good for the party. The party has given tickets to outsiders. “How will we convince party workers to campaign for them,” he added. Interestingly Udit Raj who is contesting from north west seat from the party ticket, had abused Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in the past,” he said.
Congress leader Surendra Rajput said Kharge will decide the future course of action after Lovely’s resignation. “I would only say that our alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party happened with his participation and as per his wish. The general elections are going on and one should keep personal expectations and aspirations aside for now,” he said.
Earlier, a scuffle broke outside Lovely’s residence here as his supporters allegedly pushed ex-Congress MLA Asid Mohammed Khan who had reached there after Lovely’s resignation. Khan said, “This was an internal matter and Lovely should have reached out to the Congress president. By releasing his resignation letter in the media, he is providing an advantage to the BJP.” He alleged that BJP will replace its East Delhi candidate Harsh Malhotra and Lovely will be declared by the party as its candidate from the constituency.
At a press conference later, Lovely made it clear that he has only resigned from the party post and is not joining any political party.
AAP senior leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said it was an internal matter of their senior ally Congress. “It won’t be appropriate for me to comment on the matter. AAP is fighting on the four seats it is contesting with full strength and we are hopeful that people will vote for the INDIA bloc candidates on all the seven seats in Delhi,” he said.
