Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely on Sunday announced his resignation from the post, citing the party's high command's decision to ally with the Aam Aadmi Party, which he says was formed "on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress Party."
In a letter written to the party, Lovely said: "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."
He alleged that all decisions taken by senior Delhi Congress leaders have been vetoed by the Congress general secretary (Delhi-incharge), who also did not permit him to make appointments in the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. "My request for the appointment of a veteran leader as Media head of DPCC was blatantly rejected. To date, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed the DPCC to appoint all block presidents in the city. Resultantly more than 150 blocks in Delhi do not presently have a Block President," he said.
He said the Delhi unit was against the party's alliance with the AAP. "Despite that, the Party decided to ally with the AAP in Delhi," Lovely 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 AICC General Secretary (Organisation), I even went to the extent of visiting Kejriwal's residence on the night of his arrest along with Subash Chopra and Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter," he added.
He also hit out at the comments made by the North-East Delhi candidate (Kanhaiya Kumar), for falsely praising the Delhi CM and endorsing the works done by AAP in the Education, Health, Road and Electricity sector. "Such ill-thought and factually incorrect statements have not gone down well with the local 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 but as a "compromise- to improve the chances of victory for the party as part of the National Alliance," he said. Lovely added that since he cannot protect the interests of the party workers, he sees no reason to continue in the said post.
Lovely's resignation comes just days after former Delhi minister and AlICC member Rajkumar Chauhan on Wednesday resigned from the party. Chauhan, who quit a day after the meeting of the Delhi Congress' disciplinary committee, was said to have been involved in an alteration with AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babria.
A meeting held last Sunday at the residence of Babria witnessed a heated argument between Babria and Chauhan. "Babaria called for a meeting and we had gone to his house. When I started speaking in the meeting, Babria asked me to 'get out' and he repeated it four to five times. I was trying to tell him that the candidate, who has been given the ticket (Udit Raj), has been abusing every caste," Chauhan said.
"I am a four-time MLA and a three-time minister (in Delhi government). We have done so many development works for Delhi. An outsider was telling me to get out. That's why I was angry and sent my resignation to DPCC chief Arvinder Singh Lovely," Chauhan said, adding that he did not get a ticket last time also.
The Delhi Congress disciplinary committee, under the chairmanship of Narendra Nath, had unanimously decided that the AICC should decide on the complaint against Chauhan.