The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress agreed to jointly run for the seven Parliamentary seats in Delhi, with the latter receiving four seats and the former three. This was the first constructive action made by the I.N.D.I.A bloc. But the Grand Old Party is having problems in the Capital now that state Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely has declared he is resigning from his party positions less than a month before the Capital’s Lok Sabha poll on May 25. His decision is purportedly motivated by his affiliation with the AAP and the selection of candidates for the North East and North West seats in Delhi. Lovely’s belated recognition that the Congress’s agreement with Arvind Kejriwal’s party is incompatible with his moral principles is a little odd because it was crafted some time ago.
The truth is that the Congress’s state branch has never supported the central command’s choice to reach a settlement with the AAP. After 15 years in power under Sheila Dikshit’s leadership, local Congress officials blame Kejriwal’s party for their defeat in the capital. There have also been a lot of ruffled feathers in the Congress state unit over the choice to field fiery student leader Kanhaiya Kumar against Manoj Tiwari of the BJP in North East Delhi and Dalit activist Udit Raj in North West Delhi. Lovely argues that the state unit was not contacted regarding the two candidates, who are seen as outsiders in the race.
Lovely has maintained that he is not joining any other party, but there are serious reports that the BJP has agreed to field him from East Delhi, where he ran unsuccessfully for the Congress in 2019. In 2017, Lovely joined the BJP after leaving the Congress previously. He left the saffron party after a few months, saying he was a “misfit” in the BJP, and then he joined the Grand Old Party again. Lovely resigned from the Delhi Congress shortly after Rajkumar Chauhan did the same, claiming disagreements with Congress general secretary Deepak Babaria.
The Congress unit’s discord is not encouraging for the party’s chances in the capital. While there was some expectation that the Congress-AAP coalition would secure a few seats for the Opposition alliance, the current events make these expectations seem gloomy. Conversely, the AAP has taken a bold stance by releasing its candidates ahead of schedule and initiating its polling campaign. They intend to capitalise on the compassion factor by enlisting Sunita Kejriwal, who has gone viral claiming that her husband’s incarceration was unlawful.
Since the Congress is in a precarious position, the party must act decisively to pull itself together.
ABHISHEK VERMA
Author: This news is edited by: Abhishek Verma, (Editor, CANON TIMES)
Authentic news.
