Trouble in Delhi Congress: 'Arvinder Singh Lovely's resignation has been accepted by High Command'

Arvind Singh Lovely's resignation has been accepted by the party high command with immediate effect, Haryana Congress in-charge Deepak Babaria said on Sunday, hours after the former resigned as Delhi Congress President. "His resignation has been accepted by the Congress High Command with immediate effect," Babaria said.

When asked if Lovely's resignation will affect the party in the elections, Babaria said: "We might face some challenges after his resignation. But that does not mean any of our work will be halted or that our candidates might lose. I stopped him at many places because the people who should not have been promoted were getting promoted. And it caused a demoralising effect on the other workers of the party."

In a letter addressed to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely said that he found himself "handicapped" as all unanimous decisions taken by senior Delhi unit leaders have been "unilaterally vetoed" by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babria.

Lovely's resignation came days after former Delhi minister and AICC member Rajkumar Chauhan resigned from the party following an altercation with Babria.

India Today reported that Lovely wanted a Lok Sabha ticket for Sandeep Dikshit and Rajkumar Chauhan but the Congress settled with Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj.

In his letter, Lovely criticised Kanhaiya Kumar for praising Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. "The candidate from North East Delhi has also been giving media bytes falsely praising the Delhi CM...in direct contradiction to the true factual position and the misery of Delhi Citizens, he (Kanhaiya) endorsed the false propaganda of AAP in regard to the supposed works done by them in education, health, road and electricity sectors."

"Such ill-thought and factually incorrect statements have not gone down well" with the Delhi Congress 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," he said.

Meanwhile, former Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Khan has claimed that Lovely would be fielded by the BJP from the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat. Khan claimed the BJP would replace Harsh Malhotra, the current party candidate from East Delhi, with Arvinder Singh Lovely. "He has issued that (resignation) letter openly to the media is directly benefitting the BJP. I can say this, in the place of Harsh Malhotra, Lovely will be declared candidate within one or two days," Khan said.

However, Lovely said that he would not join any other party.

Delhi will go to polls in the sixth phase on May 25. The nomination process will start on April 29 and continue until May 6.