Arvinder Singh Lovely returns to BJP, days after resigning as Delhi Congress President

Days after resigning as president of Delhi Congress, Arvinder Singh Lovely on Saturday joined Bhartiya Janata Party in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

"We have been given an opportunity to fight for the people of Delhi under the banner of BJP and under the leadership of Prime Minister... I have full hope and there is no doubt about it that the BJP government is being formed in the country with an overwhelming majority. In the coming days, the flag of the BJP will fly in Delhi too..." said Arvinder Singh Lovely after joining BJP.

Along with Lovely, former DUSU President Amit Malik, Rajkumar Chauhan, Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh, joined the BJP at party headquarters in New Delhi.


Lovely 'unhappy' with Congress:
Lovely resigned as the party's Delhi unit chief, citing the alliance with the AAP as one of the reasons. He said the Congress' Delhi unit was against the alliance but the party high command went ahead with it.

"The Delhi Congress unit was against an alliance with a party which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and mala fide corruption charges against the Congress party ... half of the cabinet ministers (of the party) are presently in jail on corruption charges," Lovely said in his resignation letter sent to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

"Despite that, the party (Congress) made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi. We respected the party's final decision ... I even went to the extent of visiting Mr (Arvind) Kejriwal's residence on the night of his arrest along with Mr Subash Chopra and Mr Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter," he said.

Lovely had resigned as chief of the Congress' Delhi unit in 2015, taking moral responsibility for the party's worst-ever performance in the assembly elections.

The Congress had failed to win a single seat in the 70-member House as AAP swept to victory in 67 constituencies and the BJP won three.

Lovely contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from East Delhi against the BJP's Gautam Gambhir and AAP candidate Atishi, securing 24 per cent votes.

Voting for all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi is scheduled to take place on May 25, during the sixth phase of the ongoing general elections. The counting for all seven phases is scheduled for June 4.

(with agency inputs)