Arvinder Singh Lovely appointed Cong's Delhi unit chief

Lovely, an old Congress hand in the state capital, had joined the BJP in 2017 but came back to the Congress fold just months after quitting the grand old party.

Congress on Thursday appointed former Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely as its Delhi president, amid the party’s central leadership exploring possibilities with its ally AAP.

The announcement came on a day when 28 parties were meeting in Mumbai for deliberations for two days. Lovely, a former Urban Development and Education Minister in Sheila Dikshit government between 2003 and 2013, replaces Anil Chaudhary.

“Congress President has appointed Arvinder Singh Lovely as president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect,” Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said in a statement, which also appreciated the contribution of outgoing president Chaudhary.

A four-term MLA from Gandhi Nagar, who lost out to AAP in successive elections, had left the Congress in 2017 only to rejoin it a year later. After Congress' debacle in 2013 Assembly elections, Lovely had helmed the Delhi Congress for two years before he was replaced.

Lovely said his role is to strengthen the Congress and raise the voice of the people of Delhi.

Asked about the possibility of alliance between the Congress and the AAP, he told PTI, “the decision on how we will fight the elections and with whom we will fight will be taken by the party high command. I have no role in it. The Delhi Congress will accept whatever the high command says.”

His comments came even as a number of Delhi leaders had expressed their reservations about aligning with the AAP, which has joined the I.N.D.I.A bloc. The Congress central leadership has reasoned with its Delhi unit on the need for an alliance though no formal decision has been taken.

For Lovely, the task is cut out as Congress has not won a single Assembly or Lok Sabha seat since 2015. The party has already tasked its local leaders to strengthen its position in all the seven Lok Sabha seats, which led to speculation that it is against any coalition with AAP.

With spokesperson Alka Lamba claiming that there are instructions to strengthen the party, which would fight all the seven seats, AAP had hit back saying there was no point in continuing in I.N.D.I.A.

In a firefighting mission, Congress Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria said Lamba was not authorised to speak on the issue and no such decision was taken.

However, the Congress leadership chose to nominate Ajay Maken to the Congress Working Committee as well as Lamba as a Special Invitee. Both Maken and Lamba, who had been an AAP MLA for sometime before quitting the party and returned to Congress, are known vocal anti-AAP voices in the Congress.