Lok Sabha Poll: Opposition fails ‘fair & lovely’ test in Delhi
Image credit X Arvider Singh Lovely
Arvinder Singh Lovely resignation exposes Opposition unity in Delhi
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, April 28: The Delhi unit of the Congress seems to have unyoked with the party high command. Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely in his resignation letter has revealed that the city unit was not even consulted before finalizing names of the two Lok Sabha candidates in the national capital.
“Out of these three seats, while rejecting the views of the PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee), the North-west Delhi and the Northeast Delhi seats were given to those who were total strangers to the party,” wrote Lovely in his resignation letter.
The Congress has fielded Udit Raj from the North-west and Kanhaiya Kumar from the Northeast Delhi Lok Sabha seats. Raj Kumar Chouhan and Sandeep Dikshit were widely seen staking claims for the two Lok Sabha seats respectively.
Dikshit is son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit while also being a former Lok Sabha MP. Chouhan was a member of the Delhi Cabinet during three terms of the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress government in the city.
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The Congress struck an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the Lok Sabha elections. The AAP and the Congress are contesting four and three Lok Sabha seats in the national capital respectively.
In his resignation letter, Lovely refreshed the disconnect of the city unit of the Congress with the high command. “The Delhi Congress unit was against an alliance with the AAP which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malicious corruption charges against the Congress,” wrote Lovely.
Sandeep Dikshit rushed to the residence of Lovely after the four-page long resignation letter surfaced in the social media. Lovely has given an account that the city unit of the Congress has bene facing rebellion against the party’s Lok Sabha candidates in the North-west and the Northeast Delhi constituencies.
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Lovely had previously quit the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But he had returned to the Congress soon.
Lovely, Sandeep Dikshit, and Chouhan are among the city unit leaders who owe their affiliations to the Congress of the Sheila Dikshit days. Their Cabinet colleague Ashok Kumar Walia had passed away after the outbreak of the Covid-19.
The resignation letter of Lovely revealed that the alliance of the Congress and the AAP may lack the support of the party workers on the ground. This may also possibly expose the claims of the Congress-AAP for the consolidation of the non-BJP votes in the national capital.
Besides, the Congress and the AAP are contesting the Lok Sabha elections as electoral rivals. While Udit Raj has been with the Congress for a few years, the import of Kanhaiya Kumar in the party ranks has apparently riled the old guards of the main Opposition outfit in the city.
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