New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday appointed former MLA Devender Yadav as the interim president of its Delhi unit, two days after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post over the party's alliance with AAP, among other reasons. 


Devender Yadav won the Badli assembly constituency of Delhi in 2008 and 2013, but was defeated by Ajesh Yadav of AAP in 2015. He currently also serves as AICC in-charge for Punjab. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has appointed Yadav as the interim president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) with immediate effect, reported news agency PTI.






 


The seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Delhi will vote on May 25.


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In his resignation letter to the Congress president, sent on Saturday, Lovely complained about the fact that all unanimous decisions taken by senior Delhi unit leaders have been "unilaterally vetoed" by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria. 


Delhi Congress Unit Against The Alliance With AAP: Lovely


"The Delhi Congress unit was against the alliance with AAP but the party high command went ahead with it," Lovely wrote in his letter. He also criticised Congress candidates — Kanhaiya Kumar from Northeast Delhi and Udit Raj from Northwest Delhi — for certain statements. and claimed tickets were given to two people who were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and party policies. 


As calls for the removal of Deepak Babaria reverberated within the party, the AICC Delhi in-charge said it was unfortunate that Arvinder Singh Lovely's resignation had coincided with the ongoing general elections. He maintained confidence in the Congress's "resilience", saying the development would not undermine the party's stance.


The Aam Aadmi Party termed the issue an internal matter concerning their ally. The BJP, meanwhile, called the AAP-Congress alliance "unnatural", alleging that it was orchestrated to shield corruption.


This was Lovely's second resignation as Delhi Congress chief. He had previously stepped down from the post in 2015. He briefly joined the BJP in 2017 before rejoining the Congress nearly nine months later.