Exodus in Delhi Congress Continues Over Alliance With AAP As 2 Former MLAs Resign

New Delhi: Exodus in Delhi unit of the Congress party continues after Arvinder Singh Lovely stepped down from the post of state unit chief. In a double jolt to the Congress party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, prominent leaders of the Congress party in Delhi- Neeraj Basoya and Nasseb Singh- resigned from the party on Wednesday, May 1. The two leaders cited Congress' decision to ally with the Aam Aadmi Party as the reason behind their resignation. 

The resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the former Congress MLAs said that Devender Yadav who had once ran full-blown campaign against Arvind Kejriwal, will be forced to praise him and support the Aam Aadmi Party after being appointed as the Delhi Congress chief. The Congress on Tuesday appointed former MLA Devender Yadav as interim president of its Delhi unit, days after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post

"Today, you have appointed Davinder Yadav as DPCC Chief. He as AICC (In-Charge Punjab) has run a campaign in Punjab solely based on attacking Arvind Keiriwal's false agenda and today, in Delhi he will be mandated to praise and support AAP and its Chief Arvind Kejriwal. Being deeply pained and humiliated at the recent developments in the Party, I resign from the party," read the resignation letter. 

Alliance With AAP Humiliating: Former Congress MLA Basoya 

The two leaders called the alliance “humiliating” and raised objection to association with Arvind Kejriwal's AAP as it was accused in the liquor scam case. "Our continued alliance, with AAP is extremely humiliating given that the AAP has been associated with numerous scams in the past 7 years. The top 3 Leaders of the AAP-Arvind Kejriwal, Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia are already in jail. AAP has been accused of serious corruption charges on various issues such as the Delhi Liquor Scam and Delhi Jal Board Scam..." said former MLA Neeraj Basoya in his resignation letter. 

He said, “The Aam Aadmi Party, throughout its existence, has levelled serious allegations against our party and leadership.” He alleged that the AAP's government in Delhi has destroyed all the development works done by the former Congress governments. 

AAP-Congress Alliance in Delhi

In this Lok Sabha elections the Congress is fighting on 3 seats in Delhi while the AAP is contesting on 4 seats as the seat-sharing arrangement in the INDI alliance. The Congress has nominated JP Aggarwal from Chandni Chowk, Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi and Udit Raj from Delhi North West. The elections to Delhi will be held on May 25 and the results of all Lok Sabha seats will be declared on June 2. Kanhaiya Kumar is slated to meet Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal later in the afternoon today. The Congress has been rallying along with AAP since Kejriwal's arrest. 

Arvinder Singh Lovely, while resigning from the post of Delhi unit chief, had also highlighted alliance with AAP as a major reason behind his decision. 

"Our continued alliance, with AAP is extremely humiliating given that the AAP has been associated with numerous scams in the past 7 years. The top 3 Leaders of the AAP-Arvind Kejriwal, Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia are already in jail. AAP has been accused of serious corruption charges on various issues such as the Delhi Liquor Scam and Delhi Jal Board Scam..." said former MLA Neeraj Basoya in his resignation letter. 

Congress Taking No Lessons From the Lovely Episode 

The two resignations state that the Congress party has taken no lessons from the Arvinder Singh Lovely episode. Arvinder Singh Lovely, a prominent political figure under Sheila Dixit's government and has held ministerial portfolios including Education, Transport, Urban Development and Revenue, resigned from the post of Delhi unit chief on April 28.  He took the step days after opting out of the Lok Sabha race. 

In his resignation letter, Lovely said that the Delhi unit of Congress was against the alliance with Aam Aadmi Party. He said that the AAP was formed with the sole agenda of harming Congress. "The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a Party which was formed on the sole basis of leveling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress Party. Despite that, the Party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi," said Arvinder Singh Lovely in his resignation letter.

He said that despite opposing the alliance decision, he followed the instructions of party high command and ensured that the entire Delhi Congress unit followed the same. He said that he went to Kejriwal's residence on the orders of AICC General Secretary (Organisation). To this, the senior Congress leaders said that the alliance was in the greater good and was necessary to “save democracy and constitution".