With Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Arvinder Singh lovely deciding to keep himself away from the poll battle, the fissure in DPCC over the foisting of Ajay Maken in Delhi poll arena, has further widened. This has come as a rude jolt to the party and its supporters as the safest seat for the Congress in the city will now have a new candidate.
The decision has unnerved the party workers as lovely is considered to be a tall leader and has won four times in a row from Gandhinagar Assembly seat. The former Delhi Minister was one of the eight winners in the last Assembly polls. The Pioneer has earlier reported that lovely has conveyed it to the party leadership that he will not contest polls. Political observers say that the reason is more political than personal. lovely is reportedly unhappy after Ajay Maken was appointed the head of the campaign committee for Delhi polls.
Insiders say that former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was earlier offered to head the campaign committee but she refused. If political circles are to be believed, lovely has stayed away from the poll battle as vice president Rahul Gandhi wanted him to focus on organisation instead of contesting polls this time. Reportedly, lovely also met Congress president Sonia Gandhi two days back over this issue.
However, party affairs in the city are not willing to buy the argument that lovely has opted out due to organisational issues. Though in charge of Delhi affairs and senior Congress leader PC Chacko, Maken and Haroon Yusuf held a Press conference to clear the air that lovely was not contesting due to some reasons sources said that it was more of a damage control exercise.
“The party has requested lovely, candidate from the Gandhinagar constituency to withdraw from the contest and look after the organisation of the elections,” Chacko said on Sunday. It is learnt that party may field ex-councilor Surender Sharma in place of lovely. Chacko has earlier categorically stated that lovely will contest from Gandhinagar seat that’s why his name was announced in the first list of the Congress candidate. Sources close to lovely said that contest in Gandhinagar seat is going to be tough this time in the wake of AAP emergence as large number of Muslim votes and Congress party’s traditional votes are reportedly shifting to AAP.”
Chacko said that the new candidate for the seat, which has been a stronghold of lovely, would be announced on Monday. Meanwhile, lovely said that he is not in conflict with Congress after Ajay Maken was made the face of Congress’s Delhi campaign. He added that he had himself proposed Maken’s name for heading the party campaign in Delhi. lovely further stated that he and Maken have a very good understanding of each other. lovely’s candidature for the February 7 elections had been announced in the very first list released by Congress, which also had the names of the seven other sitting MlAs of the party. In the Assembly polls held in December of 2013, Congress had managed to win only eight seats in Delhi.
Addressing a Press conference here, along with AICC general secretary Ajay Maken, Chacko dismissed suggestions that lovely had himself opted out of the fray. “It is not a decision by lovely. It is the decision of the party, the party has directed him,” he said. lovely was asked to look after the organisation of the polls in view of the fact that besides the PCC chief, there was no organisation in place in Delhi Congress, Chacko said.
lovely was made the PCC chief some 10 months back but there have been no other appointments to the PCC in view of the organisational elections all over the country which are due soon. Asked, meanwhile, as to why lovely was then named as a contestant in the first place, Chacko said that the party had re-nominated all eight sitting MlAs. Reports earlier had it that in a major setback to the party ahead of the Assembly elections, lovely has decided not to contest the polls. AICC was so far evasive on the issue. Maken, who is also the campaign in-charge of the party in Delhi, dismissed speculation that lovely had opted out of the fray after he was made the “face” of the party in Delhi.