Just two days after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post of party’s city unit ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, Congress announced on Tuesday that Devendra Yadav has been appointed to serve as the interim president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee.
Lovely stepped down from his position as the head of the Delhi Congress, expressing disapproval of the party’s decision to form a coalition with AAP for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the national capital. His resignation came just 48 hours prior to this development.
Currently serving as the Congress’s Punjab in-charge, Devender Yadav previously held the position of MLA, representing the Badli constituency in Delhi.
Singh also highlighted that the Delhi Congress unit opposed the alliance with AAP, but the party high command disregarded their plea.
While speaking to the ITV Network, Yadav said, “There are challenges in Delhi like that of coordination, and the elections just ahead in which we have to perform well. So today I met number of our party leaders and workers and I have full hope that in the coming days Congress will strengthen.”
When asked about the reasons mentioned by Lovely in his resignation letter about the grand old party’s alliance with AAP in the national capital, Yadav, who is also the incharge of party’s Punjab unit said, “This alliance was not a decision of one person. It was a collective decision of the party. Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi called a meeting of Delhi leaders and they discussed with us and then a decision of alliance with AAP was taken in the national capital. And today AAP is contesting on four seats while Congress is contesting on three seats in Delhi and I can say with full confidence that the alliance with give a spirited fight on all the seven seats.”
The development comes two days after Lovely resigned from the post of city unit chief ahead of the crucial general elections.
In his letter Lovely said that 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. My request for the appointment of a veteran leader as Media head of DPCC was blatantly rejected. To date, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed the DPCC to appoint all Block presidents in the city.
Further, he said that despite Aam Aadmi Party accusing the Congress over corruption, the party allied with them.
“The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a Party which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress Party and in turn, whose half of the cabinet ministers are presently in jail on corruption charges.
Despite that, the Party decided to ally with the AAP in Delhi,” Lovely said in his letter to Kharge.
“We respected the Party’s final decision. Not only did I publicly back the decision, I also ensured that the full State Unit fell in line with the High Command’s final order. On instructions from AICC General Secretary (Organisation), I even went to the extent of visiting Kejriwal’s residence on the night of his Arrest along with Subash Chopra and Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter,” he added.