New Delhi: Former Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the national capital on Saturday, days after he quit as chief of the Congress' Delhi unit, citing the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as one of the reasons.
Speaking to the media after the ceremony, Lovely said, "...Indira ji ne bola tha mere khoon ka katra katra iss desh ke liye hai. Aaj Congress Party katre katre se tukde tukde tak pahunch gayi hain. (Indira Gandhi had said each drop of her blood is for the nation. Today, Congress has moved on from sacrificing the last drop of blood for the nation to breaking it into pieces). That's why we've decided to join the BJP which is working for the development of the country."
"I had resigned from the post of Delhi Congress President and after that, I met all my colleagues and thousands of Congress workers. All those people said that you should not sit at home and should continue fighting for the people of Delhi and the country," he said.
This is the second time in his political career that Lovely has switched from Congress to BJP. In April 2017, he had quit Congress to join the saffron party, only to return to the grand old party in February 2018.
Former Delhi minister and All India Congress Committee member Rajkumar Chauhan, who too had quit the party on April 24, also joined the saffron party at its headquarters here. Apart from Arvinder Lovely and Rajkumar, a couple of other known faces of the Delhi Congress unit including Naseeb Singh, Neeraj Basoya and Amit Malik joined the BJP on Saturday.
They all joined BJP in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva, and party’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde.
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.
Notably, the Delhi Congress unit has been beset with intense turmoil and infighting, as the city leaders are miffed and upset over the alliance with the AAP and the high command giving preference to ‘outsiders’ over local leadership, in ticket allotment for Lok Sabha polls and also for party’s affairs.
Rajkumar Chauhan resigned from the party last month after Delhi Congress’ disciplinary committee objected to his ‘dissent’ to the party line. Lovely’s resignation as the Delhi unit chief last month, came as a big blow to the party. This followed a series of exits including couple of well-known names like Naseeb Singh and Neeraj Basoya, both former Delhi legislators.
Read More
