Week after quitting as Delhi Congress chief, Lovely joins BJP

Former Delhi minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, former MLAs Naseeb Singh and Neeraj Basoya, and leader Amit Malik also joined the BJP. Delhi goes to polls on May 25

A week after resigning from the post of Delhi Congress chief, Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday along with four other Congress leaders, citing his former party’s alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for his decision to defect.

Arvinder Singh Lovely and Virendra Sachdeva at the Delhi BJP headquarters on Saturday. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

Lovely, who was briefly with the BJP in 2017, was accompanied by former Delhi minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, former MLAs Naseeb Singh and Neeraj Basoya, and leader Amit Malik.

Their move comes less than a month before Delhi goes to polls on May 25.

Lovely and the other leaders began making public statements against the AAP-Congress alliance in late April. Congress workers were “against the alliance between the two erstwhile rivals” and that “it was getting difficult to face the people”, Lovely had said when he stepped down as the party’s state unit chief. While Chauhan resigned two days before Lovely, Singh and Basoya resigned from the party within days.

The former Congress leaders arrived at BJP headquarters at 4pm and made a formal appearance alongside Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva and others. “I want to thank PM Narendra Modi for allowing me and my friends to fight for the rights of the people of Delhi under the leadership of BJP. We will do whatever is possible to get the people of Delhi rid of the atmosphere created in the last seven to eight years. I firmly believe that BJP will once again form the government (at Centre) with a huge majority, the BJP will win the Delhi assembly election as well,” said Lovely during a press conference at BJP headquarters.

Puri welcomed Lovely and others into the fold. “It is a happy day for me. Lovely and Raj Kumar Chauhan served as cabinet ministers in Delhi for a decade... people of such credentials joining the BJP is a welcome step. Your services will be very effectively utilised. Our party needs people like you,” said Puri.

While resigning from the post of Congress chief, Lovely cited internal friction and conflicts in the AAP-Congress alliance — exposing chinks in the Opposition’s armour.

This is Lovely’s second stint with the BJP. He had joined the BJP in April 2017 and returned to the Congress in February 2018 saying that “he was an ideological misfit within the party.”

“Lovely has behaved like an opportunist person. It is not the first time that he has tried to sabotage the Congress. The party does not care much about such people. The Congress was strong before and will remain so in the future as well,” said Delhi Congress interim chief Devender Yadav.

HT reached out to the Aam Aadmi Party, but did not get any response to request for comment.