Big setback to Congress as Delhi chief Arvinder Singh issues resignation

Just weeks before voting for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, Congress party chief in the state, Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned as party’s president in protest against the party’s alliance with INDIA bloc partner AAP and over selection of party candidates.

The announcement that came on Sunday has brought forth the internal feud in the Congress party that has been raging for some time. Lovely’s resignation comes just four days after former Delhi minister Rajkumar Chauhan quit the party.

AICC in-charge Deepak Babaria, who was the target of Lovely’s attack in his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, announced that his resignation has been accepted.

In the letter, Lovely mentioned Chauhan saying, he found himself “handicapped” as all unanimous decisions taken by senior Delhi unit leaders have been “unilaterally vetoed” by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria.
The Delhi Congress unit was against the alliance with AAP but the party high command went ahead with it, said Lovely.

Although Lovely made it clear that he has only quit the party post and not the party, a section of the Congress leadership as well as AAP leaders believed that he would be joining the BJP again.

However, Lovely has dismissed such rumours and clarified that he has resigned from the post of Delhi Congress chief and not the party. "I have only resigned as Delhi Congress chief and I am not joining any political party.”

According to party sources as reported by The Indian Express, has indicated that more leaders may follow suit. The high command has started reaching out to its Delhi leaders to control the damage.
Meanwhile, the BJP has criticized the INDIA bloc saying, it was an “unnatural alliance” forged by the leadership of AAP and Congress to “shield their corruption”, but their party workers had not accepted it.

Lovely had resigned from the post of Delhi Congress president in 2015 as well. He joined the BJP in 2017 but returned to the Congress almost nine months later.

In a separate development, Congress's Indore candidate, Akshay Kanti Bamb, on Monday withdrew his nomination and joined BJP.

Madhya Pradesh Minister and BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya posted a picture of Bamb, and wrote 'welcome to the party'.

"Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Indore Akshay Kanti Bam is welcome in the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party national president JP Nadda, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and state president VD Sharma," a rough translation from Vijayvargiya's post in Hindi suggested as quoted by India Today.

The Congress had fielded Bamb against sitting BJP MP Shankar Lalwani from the Indore Lok Sabha seat, where polling will be held on May 13.

Commenting on Bamb withdrawing his nomination, Congress leader Subhashini Sharad Yadav said, “This has happened out of fear. For a healthy democracy, it is important that all the parties and people from different communities participate.”

"It happened in Surat, as well as Indore, but the party is not weak. It is evident how democracy is being murdered," she said.