Arvinder Singh Lovely Resigns: The Delhi Congress is grappling with internal discord ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, as revealed in a statement by its president Arvinder Singh Lovely. The statement outlines a series of grievances, including the unilateral vetoing of decisions by the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge), hindering senior appointments, and interfering with candidate selections. Despite objections, the party entered into an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), causing further dissatisfaction. Senior leaders publicly withdrew from potential candidature to accommodate other parties’ nominees. Tensions flared when candidates made disparaging remarks and praised opponents, intensifying rifts within the party. These internal challenges pose significant hurdles for the Delhi Congress as it prepares for the elections.
Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned because of the following dissatisfaction among party leaders and workers after the AAP and Congress alliance in Delhi –
1
All unanimous decisions taken by senior leaders of Delhi Congress regarding the Lok Sabha elections were unilaterally vetoed by the AICC General Secretary Delhi In-charge. Since my appointment as DPCC President, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed me to make any senior appointment in DPCC. My request to appoint an experienced leader as media person to the DPCC President was also flatly rejected. Till date the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed DPCC to appoint all the block presidents of the city. As a result, more than 150 blocks of Delhi currently have no block presidents.
2
Delhi Congress was against the alliance with AAP. The party leaders said that AAP was formed on the sole basis of making false, fabricated and malicious corruption allegations against the Congress party. Half of the cabinet ministers of the Kejriwal government are currently in jail on corruption charges. Despite this, the party decided to form an alliance with Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi. As Delhi Congress President, I respected the final decision of the party. I not only publicly supported the decision, but I also ensured that the entire state unit followed the final order of the high command. On the instructions of the AICC General Secretary (Organization), I also went to Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on the night of his arrest along with Subhash Chopra and Sandeep Dixit, despite their being against my position on the matter.
3
Under the alliance, out of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, Congress was allotted only three seats to contest.
4
Given the limited number of seats allotted to the Congress party in Delhi under the alliance, and in the interest of the party to ensure that tickets were allotted to others, senior Delhi Congress colleagues and I publicly withdrew our names and refused to be considered as potential candidates.
5
Out of the three seats, the DPCC, ignoring the views of all observers and local party workers, gave the seats of North-West Delhi and North-East Delhi to two candidates who were completely strangers to the policies of Delhi Congress and the party.
6
In Congress, it is the prerogative of the high command to take the final decision on the candidates. However, the surprising thing is that even after the high command took the decision to make Udit Raj and Kanhaiya Kumar the candidates, the PCC was not formally informed beforehand. So that I could have taken some necessary steps at least out of caution.
7
Recently when Delhi Congress held a formal press conference to introduce 3 candidates for the upcoming general elections, there was a protest outside the PCC office by some of our party workers against the candidates from North West Delhi and North East Delhi. I tried to calm the situation by publicly saying that in a democratic party system all party members have the right to express their disagreement.
8
In direct violation of my public democratic stance, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi in-charge) was agitated and asked me to suspend Raj Kumar Chauhan (former Delhi minister), Surendra Kumar (former MLA) and others. Instead of calming the situation, he had several heated exchanges with former MP Sandeep Dixit, Raj Kumar Chauhan (former Delhi minister), Bhishma Sharma (former MLA) and Surendra Kumar (former MLA) even in public meetings.
9
The situation was not that bad but it was made worse by the North-West Delhi candidate making derogatory and anti-party statements. The North-West Delhi candidate insulted our own party workers. The North-West Delhi candidate has sent me several written messages since the press conference, asking me to suspend various local generational party leaders.
10
The North-East Delhi candidate is also giving media bytes falsely praising the Delhi CM in direct violation of the party line and the beliefs of local party workers. He supported the false propaganda of AAP regarding the alleged work done by him in the education, health, road and power sectors, in direct contradiction to the actual factual situation and the suffering of the citizens of Delhi.
