Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Former Delhi Congress leaders, including Arvinder Singh Lovely, join BJP

New Delhi: Days after his resignation as Delhi Congress chief, senior leader Arvinder Singh Lovely on Saturday joined the BJP for the second time in seven years along with four other leaders who are opposed to the alliance with AAP and raised objections against two “outsider” Lok Sabha candidates.

Lovely had on April 27 submitted resignation while former minister Rajkumar Chauhan, former MLAs Naseeb Singh and Neeraj Basoya and former Delhi Youth Congress President Amit Malik also quit Congress earlier this week over their objections on AAP and Congress candidates.

The Delhi leaders joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Puri and General Secretary Vinod Tawde and attacked the party for the alliance with AAP. All these leaders have some clout in their areas and their absence would have an impact on Congress prospects.

Lovely, who had joined the BJP but left it months later to rejoin Congress, hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP for giving him and his colleagues the opportunity to join the party when they felt lost. He asserted that Modi is set to retain power with a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.

Delhi Congress interim president Devender Yadav said, “when the mother (Congress) needed its children, Lovely left. This will not have an impact on the party.”

Congress in the capital was sent into turmoil last weekend when Lovely’s resignation surfaced in the media in which he alleged that party in-charge Deepak Babaria rejected all their unanimous decisions on organisational appointments and imposed two candidates who are “strangers”.

Congress leadership appeared to have an inkling about Lovely’s future course of action with sources saying that his resignation was immediately accepted to arrest any further rebellion in the party which is facing the Lok Sabha election. It appointed Devender Yadav as interim president.

Some Congress leaders had openly claimed that Lovely was heading to BJP and could even be fielded in East Delhi by replacing the existing candidate. Delhi Minister and senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj also made similar allegations.

Lovely had said that party workers were upset with North West Delhi candidate Udit Raj, who used “derogatory words” against them, and North East Delhi candidate Kanhaiya Kumar, who praised AAP and Arvind Kejriwal.

Lovely was also an aspirant for the North East Delhi seat where the central leadership chose Kumar, though he had publicly said that he was not seeking a ticket. Chauhan was also eyeing the North West seat.

The former Delhi chief also had said that the Delhi unit was against any alliance with AAP but he tried to take all people along and work for the alliance against his own opinion.

Simultaneously, Congress also reinducted former minister Yogananda Shastri, who had joined NCP earlier, into the party.

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