Arvinder Singh Lovely, Four Others, Join BJP Days After Quitting Congress

Days after quitting the post of Delhi Congress chief, Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday. Four other former Congress leaders– including Rajkumar Chauhan, Naseeb Singh, Neeraj Basoya and Amit Malik– switched sides with Lovely, at the ceremony held at BJP headquarters in New Delhi today.

Lovely thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving him and his colleagues the opportunity to join the party when they felt lost. He asserted that Modi is set to retain power with a big majority in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

“We have been given an opportunity to fight for the people of Delhi under the banner of BJP and under the leadership of Prime Minister,” he said.

“I have full hope and there is no doubt about it that the BJP government is being formed in the country with an overwhelming majority. In the coming days, the flag of the BJP will fly in Delhi too,” the former Congress leader added.

his will be the second innings of Lovely in the BJP after he left it to rejoin the Congress in 2018 following a brief stay in the saffron party.

The Delhi Congress unit has been beset with intense turmoil and infighting, as the city leaders are miffed over the alliance with AAP and the high command giving preference to ‘outsiders’ over local leadership, in ticket allotment for Lok Sabha polls and other party’s affairs.

It is believed that Lovely and some other leaders were also upset with their party’s choice of candidates, including Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj, in the national capital for the elections.

Lovely, who was appointed as the chief of the Congress Delhi unit last year, resigned from the post on Sunday, setting off speculation about a crossover to the BJP.

It also followed a series of exits including a couple of well-known names like Naseeb Singh and Neeraj Basoya, both former Delhi legislators.

Rajkumar Chauhan, the former Delhi minister and the All India Congress Committee (AICC) member also resigned from the party last month after the Delhi Congress’ disciplinary committee objected to his ‘dissent’ to the party line.

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