Arvinder Singh Lovely joins BJP after quitting as Delhi Congress chief

Former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the BJP on Saturday (May 4) along with a few other leaders, including former minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and former MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh.

His move comes less than a week after stepping down from the post, apparently over the party’s alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

This will be the second innings of Lovely in the BJP after he left it to rejoin the Congress in 2018 following a brief stay in the saffron party.

Hails Modi’s leadership

Lovely hailed the BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 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 ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

After taking the step on April 28, Lovely had claimed that he had only resigned as the chief of the Congress’s Delhi unit and was not joining any other political party. His “clarification” had come after former Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Khan had claimed that the BJP would field Lovely from the East Delhi constituency, replacing Harsh Malhotra.

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It is not yet known whether Asif Mohammad Khan’s prediction was correct but Lovely has evidently taken a U-turn on his statement. He joined BJP at the party headquarters in Delhi in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

Grudge against Congress

Lovely has claimed that party workers were opposed to the alliance with the AAP, several of whose ministers are in jail over corruption charges. He had also slammed Congress’ Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria for not letting him function, and the party’s decision to field Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj from North East Delhi and North West Delhi constituencies, respectively.

He had claimed the party’s final decision of naming these “outsiders” as candidates was not discussed with him. Lovely had claimed he was compelled to resign after Kanhaiya and Udit Raj made statements that were “directly contradictory to the party line”.

Delhi Congress interim chief reacts

Delhi Congress’s interim chief Devender Yadav on Saturday described Lovely as an “opportunist”. The Congress does not care about such people. It was strong before and will remain strong in the future, he said.

“I put Arvinder Singh Lovely in the category of an opportunist person. This is not the first time that he has tried to sabotage the Congress. The party does not care much about such people. The Congress was strong before and will remain strong in the future as well. This is their habit. Whenever there is a chance, he (Lovely) has tried to cheat and there is no place for cheaters in the party,” he added.

Ex-Speaker returns to Congress

On the other hand, former Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri, who had quit the Congress to join Sharad Pawar’s NCP some years back, returned to the Congress on Saturday.

Not naming Lovely, Shastri slammed “those deserting the party today”, claiming “this is the time to fight to preserve the democracy for which leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Ashfaqulla Khan, Bismil and others gave their lives”.

On his own decision to quit the Congress some years ago, Shastri said, he had “not quit but just gone pados ka ghar (neighbour’s house) for some time” and that “even then, [he] never said a word against the Congress or its leadership”.

Setback for Congress

Meanwhile, in another blow to the Congress, party candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha constituency Sucharita Mohanty has declined to contest the election and returned the party ticket, alleging lack of funding from her party.

Mohanty, daughter of former Congress MP Brajamohan Mohanty in a mail to AICC general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal on Friday (May 4) claimed that her campaign in the Puri Lok Sabha constituency has been hit hard because the party has denied funding.

The journalist-turned-politician alleged that AICC Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar “categorically” asked her to fight from her own resources.

(With agency inputs)