New Delhi: Discontentment in Delhi Congress over the candidature of former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Udit Raj blew up Saturday with state unit chief Arvinder Singh Lovely resigning.
In his resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, which surfaced Sunday, Lovely cited the nomination of two “total strangers” as party candidates and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge (Delhi) Deepak Babaria’s constant interferences as the reason for his decision.
The Congress has allied with its principal adversary in Delhi — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — and is fighting three of the seven Lok Sabha seats, while AAP will fight four. Lovely’s resignation is seen as a big setback to the party ahead of the Delhi polls scheduled for 25 May.
The Congress has fielded Kanhaiya Kumar from North-East Delhi and Udit Raj from North-West. Raj had quit the BJP to join the Congress after the former had denied a ticket to the then-sitting MP from North-West. Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Kanhaiya Kumar joined the Congress in 2021. He had unsuccessfully contested as CPI candidate from Begusarai in 2019.
Lovely, who rejoined Congress in 2018 before a short stint with the BJP, in a letter to Kharge, wrote, “All unanimous decisions taken by the senior Delhi Congress leaders have been 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 appointments in the DPCC.”
Arvinder Singh Lovely resigns from the position of Delhi Congress president.
“The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a Party which was formed on the sole basis of leveling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress Party. Despite that,… https://t.co/Y1A360fuut pic.twitter.com/hLP9RtnzUE
— ANI (@ANI) April 28, 2024
He blamed Babaria for rejecting his request to appoint a “veteran leader” as media head of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) and not allowing the DPCC to appoint block presidents in the city.
Lovely stated that the Delhi unit, despite initial opposition, respected the decision of allying with AAP, a party which, he said, “was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress, and in turn, whose half of the cabinet ministers are presently in jail on corruption charges.”
“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 the matter,” Lovely said.
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Concerns over Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj
One of the main complaints from Lovely was the fact that Kanhaiya Kumar, from Bihar, and Udit Raj, from UP, were given tickets and the fact that the party announced their nomination without informing the Delhi unit in advance.
He called them “total strangers to the Delhi Congress and the party policies”, adding that it is the high command’s prerogative to have a final say on candidates.
“…shockingly, once the decision in regards to the aforesaid two candidates was made by the high command, the PCC was not even intimated before the formal announcement, so that I could at least take some remedial steps and pacify the local state leaders, thereby, stalling any local party unrest,” said Lovely.
“Till date, no AICC senior leader has spoken to me to pacify the local leaders to ensure the elections are conducted smoothly,” he added.
Earlier this month, during a press conference of the Delhi unit to introduce the party’s candidates, there was a protest by the workers, “I tried to diffuse the situation by publicly stating that in a democratic party system, all party members have a right to voice their dissent,” said Lovely in the letter. “However, in direct contravention of my public democratic stand, the AICC general secretary (Delhi in-charge), distressingly, asked me to suspend Mr Raj Kumar Chauhan (ex-Delhi minister), Mr Surender Kumar (ex-MLA) and other party functionaries from the party.”
He added that, instead of calming the situation, Babaria, in public meetings, entered into numerous “heated exchanges” with senior leaders from the state, including Sandeep Dikshit and Raj Kumar Chauhan.
In his letter, Lovely said that the situation was made worse owing to Udit Raj’s “derogatory and anti-party statements”.
He alleged that, in the backdrop of the mentioned press conference, Raj “disrespected our very own party workers”. Since then, Lovely said that Udit Raj has addressed numerous written communications to him, “asking to suspend various local generational party leaders”.
Lovely had complaints about Kanhaiya Kumar too. He alleged that Kanhaiya has been giving media bytes “falsely praising the Delhi CM, in direct contravention of the party line and the local party workers’ beliefs.”
“In direct contradiction to the true factual position and the misery of Delhi citizens, he (Kanhaiya) endorsed the false propaganda of AAP with regard to the supposed work done by them in the education, health, road and electricity sectors,” Lovely said.
According to him, such comments have not gone down well with the local party unit, since the workers had an inherent understanding that the alliance was not done in appreciation of AAP’s “false propaganda” of the development of Delhi, and was in fact, a “compromise” to improve the chances of party’s victory as part of the INDIA bloc.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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