In a huge shocker to the Congress party, Arvinder Singh Lovely on Sunday resigned from his post as the Delhi Congress president. Arvinder Singh Lovely was appointed as the Delhi Congress president on August 31, 2023.
Lovely previously served as the Delhi Congress president and was also a minister in the late Sheila Dixit-led Delhi government. In his resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the former Delhi Congress chief said the Delhi unit of the grand old party was against an alliance with the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Earlier this year, the Congress arrived at a 4:3 seat-sharing arrangement with the AAP in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections. As per this seat-sharing agreement, the Congress got 3 seats: North-West Delhi, Northeast Delhi, and Chandni Chowk. He added that the Delhi Congress Unit was against the alliance with AAP as the latter party was formed on the basis of levelling false and malafide charges of corruption against the grand old party.
"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 party. Despite that, the party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi," Arvinder Singh Lovely wrote in his resignation.
He further said that despite dissatisfaction among the Delhi Congress Unit, he ensured that the entire state unit followed the high command's final order. "On instructions from AICC General Secretary (Organisation), I even went to the extent of visiting Mr Kejriwal's residence on the night of his arrest along with Mr Subash Chopra and Mr Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on my matter," Lovely further said.
Read Arvinder Singh Lovely's full resignation letter here
Besides spilling the beans on dissatisfaction among the Delhi Congress over the alliance with AAP and his visit to Kejriwal's residence on the night of latter's arrest, Lovely also gave his two cents on the seat-sharing deal between Congress and AAP.
He said that soon after the seat-sharing deal was announced, he publicly withdrew his name from the electoral fray and opted out from being considered as a potential candidate. As per Arvinder Singh Lovely, he did so to to ensure that the tickets are allotted to other senior Delhi Congress leaders.
"Out of these 3 seats, while rejecting the views of the PCC, all observers and the local party workers, the North-West Delhi and the Northeast Delhi seats were given to 2 candidates who were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and the party policies," Lovely said. He added that the Congress High Command did not even intimate the PCC before the formal announcement of these 2 candidates.
Meanwhile, Arvinder Singh Lovely is not the only one to have bid adieu to the grand old party. 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. Some senior Congress leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and P Chidambaram have opted out of contesting the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.