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BJP's reaction to Arvinder Lovely's resignation involves AAP's Sonia Gandhi arrest promise
Lovely claimed local leaders were against the alliance with AAP because the latter came into existence after levelling corruption allegations against Congress.
Reacting to Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely's stunning resignation amid the Lok Sabha elections over the alliance with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, BJP claimed on Sunday that AAP had “completely obliterated the existence” of the Mallikarjun Kharge-led party in the national capital.
Highlighting the alleged contradictions in the AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla reminded Arvind Kejriwal's party of its promise to arrest Sonia Gandhi and (late former Delhi CM) Sheila Dikshit.
"The Congress party has no mission or vision, it is only seeped in confusion, division, and contradiction. We have seen how this has been playing out, especially in Delhi…Workers of the Congress party were out on the streets of Delhi protesting against why tickets were given to people who had nothing to do with Delhi, like Kanhaiya Kumar, who had abused the armed forces and called the Naxalites as martyrs," he told ANI.
Lovely claimed local leaders were against the alliance with AAP because the latter came into existence after levelling malafide corruption allegations against the Congress, which ruled at the Centre and Delhi at the time.
"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. Despite that, the party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi," Arvinder Singh Lovely wrote in his resignation letter.
Poonawalla said the two parties came together only for political reasons. He also said that the party's leaders were leaving because of its hypocrisy.
Also read: Chopper scam: Arvind Kejriwal dares BJP arrest Cong chief Sonia Gandhi
"AAP had completely obliterated the existence of Congress in Delhi, saying they would put Sheila Dikshit and Sonia Gandhi in jail. The Congress had complained about how the AAP is involved in the liquor scam. But merely for political reasons, they have come together, that does not mean the voters will come together... Today the Congress is unable to retain its leaders because its own leaders are showing the mirror to Congress for its hypocrisy," he said.
Arvinder Singh Lovely, who became the Delhi Congress unit chief in August 2023, claimed several of his decisions were vetoed by the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge).
He also pointed out that all the senior leaders of AAP were in jail.
Arvinder Singh Lovely called North-East Delhi candidate Kanhaiya Kumar's statements praising AAP's governance, "ill-thought and factually incorrect".
“Such ill-thought and factually incorrect statements have not gone down well with the local party unit since, the local party workers had an inherent understanding that the alliance was not done in appreciation of AAP's false propaganda of the development of Delhi and was in fact, a compromise- to improve the chances of victory for the party as part of the National Alliance,” he added.
The AAP was formed in 2012, months after Arvind Kejriwal and his associates had mounted a nationwide protest against the Congress government at the Centre over their demand for the anti-corruption ombudsman, Lokpal.
In 2013, AAP dislodged the Congress government after entering a 49-day alliance with the BJP.
