Jolt To Congress Amid Polls, Delhi Unit Chief Quits Post, Lists Reasons

Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely today resigned as the chief of the party's Delhi unit over its alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Arvinder Singh Lovely said that 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.

Mr Lovely - in a letter to Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge - said that since he cannot protect the interests of the Delhi Congress workers, he sees no reason to continue as the chief of city's party unit.

"The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a party (AAP) which was formed on the sole basis of leveling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress. Despite that, the party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi," he said.

He said the party gave Lok Sabha tickets to candidates who were "total strangers" to the Delhi Congress unit, referring to Udit Raj's candidature in North-west Delhi and Kanhaiya Kumar in Northeast Delhi. 

The party high command's decision to field Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj for the polls has caused friction among the party leaders in Delhi, sources said.

Party leaders, sources said, are not ready to compromise since the AICC and high command ignored their views and concerns. "Several Delhi leaders are also planning to join the BJP or form a new party if their issues are not resolved, sources told NDTV. 

Mr Lovely also slammed Kanhaiya Kumar for praising Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who is behind bars.

"Such ill-thought and factually incorrect statements have not gone down well with the Delhi Congress unit since the local party workers had an inherent understanding that the alliance was not done in appreciation of AAP's false propaganda of the development of Delhi," he said.

Hinting at internal rift, Mr Lovely also alleged that several decisions taken by him as the Delhi Congress Chief were vetoed by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babria.

"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," he said.

Arvinder Singh Lovely was appointed the Delhi Congress President in August last year.

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress had agreed to a 4:3 seat-sharing formula for Delhi earlier this year to put up a joint fight in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

In Delhi, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is contesting four out of the seven seats - West Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi, and New Delhi. The remaining three - North East Delhi, North West Delhi, and Chandni Chowk - are with the grand old party.

Seat-sharing has been one of the major headaches for the INDIA bloc with the aspirations of the regional parties dragging the negotiations. The Congress's recent electoral setbacks in three heartland states have emboldened the regional powers to seek a bigger share of seats.

The INDIA bloc, which was set up last year to take on the BJP, has already lost two key members - Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United and Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtra Lok Dal. Both have aligned with the BJP.