Arvinder Singh Lovely resigns as Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief

New Delhi: In a major setback to the Congress Party at a time when the Lok Sabha election is going on, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from his post on Sunday.

Lovely, in his letter addressed to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, cited several reasons for his resignation, one of which was forging an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the Lok Sabha election.

However, according to sources, the resignation has not yet been accepted by Kharge.

In a three-page letter, Lovely wrote, "The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a party that was formed on the sole basis of leveling false, fabricated, and malafide corruption charges against the Congress Party, and in turn, half of the cabinet ministers are presently in jail on corruption charges. Despite that, the party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi."

He further said, "We respected the party's final decision. Not only did I publicly back the decision, but I also ensured that the full state unit fell in line with the High Command's final order. On instructions from the 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. Subhash Chopra and Mr. Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter."

He further said that after the alliance, the Congress was allotted three parliamentary seats to fight the general election. Adding that, "In the interest of the party and in order to ensure that the tickets are allotted to other senior Delhi Congress colleagues, I publicly withdrew my name and opted out of being considered as a potential candidate.

Lovely also accused the AICC general secretary (Delhi In-Charge) of interfering in all unanimous decisions taken by senior Delhi Congress leaders and not allowing him to make any senior appointments in the DPCC.

Raising questions on the party candidates, Lovely wrote, "Out of the 3 seats, while rejecting the views of the PCC, all observers, and the local party workers, the North-West Delhi and Northeast Delhi seats were given to 2 candidates who were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and the party policies.".

He said that he was resigning from the post because he could not protect the interests of the party workers with whom he has an extremely close and lifelong association.