The strife that erupted in the Delhi Pradesh Congress has finally reached the streets. Delhi Pradesh Congress President Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from his post. Ever since the Congress party made Udit Raj its candidate from North West Delhi and Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi, there has been turmoil within the party. Party leaders strongly opposed making foreigners as Lok Sabha candidates, but party workers were ignored and foreigners were given tickets. This decision proved costly for the Congress and eventually Delhi Congress President Arvinder Singh Lovely expressed his displeasure by resigning.
In fact, Arvinder Singh Lovely himself wanted to contest the Lok Sabha elections from North East Delhi against Manoj Tiwari, but ignoring his wishes, the party planned to field another face in the Lok Sabha elections. Jairam Ramesh himself pushed Kanhaiya Kumar to get the ticket from North East Delhi. Seeing this, Lovely herself said that she would not run in the elections, but the party leaders knew that Lovely was not at all happy with this decision.
Kanhaiya Kumar’s candidature was also opposed by Sandeep Dixit, who himself wanted to contest the Lok Sabha elections from North East Delhi. There was an argument between Kanhaiya Kumar and him during a meeting. But even after that the party justified the candidature of Kanhaiya Kumar. Similarly, Rajkumar Chouhan has continuously opposed the nomination of Udit Raj as the candidate from North West Delhi. On the day when the media briefing of the candidates was held, the workers continuously protested the candidature of Udit Raj and Kanhaiya Kumar in front of the party’s state headquarters. From here it was clear that these candidates were not going to receive support from the workers. His influence was sure to be seen in the Lok Sabha elections.
Opposition to the agreement with Kejriwal
Arvinder Singh Lovely strongly opposed the Aam Aadmi Party’s pact with the Congress from the beginning. According to him, the Kejriwal who defamed the Congress by raising many false allegations and played a major role in removing him from power, today it is not right for the party to compromise with that Kejriwal. Leaders who sat at high levels also raised their voices against this decision. Even lower level employees were not happy with this decision.
According to Delhi Congress sources, Arvinder Singh Lovely suggested to the party high command that just as the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress are contesting elections separately in Punjab, in the same way the two parties should contest elections separately in Delhi. He had no objection to the Aam Aadmi Party being in the Indian alliance, but he considered it a losing deal to go to the election arena with them. He said that if the Delhi elections are held with Kejriwal, it will be difficult to strengthen the Congress during the assembly elections as the party will not be able to take a strong stand against Kejriwal at that time. He also informed the senior leaders of the party about it, but ignoring their displeasure, the party decided to go for the elections with Kejriwal.
Lovely claimed that the senior leaders in high positions in the party (Congress secretary and Delhi in-charge) left no room for her to work. His every decision was thwarted. Lovely could not even make his favorite worker the head of the party’s communication cell. Because of this, Lovely’s party leadership became increasingly dissatisfied.
Arvinder Singh Lovely also said in his resignation that when he took charge of the post of president about eight months ago, the party was going through a lot of crisis. There was no big party plan, the workers were scattered. But once he took charge of the party, he tried to bring everyone together. But the party’s general secretary and Delhi in-charge kept interfering with his work. So far, more than 150 workers at the block level have not been appointed to their posts.
