Speculation rife Lovely may replace Harsh in East Delhi

Tribune News Service

Samad Hoque

New Delhi, May 4

With former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely joining the BJP, speculation is rife about him replacing Harsh Malhotra in the East Delhi constituency.

Lovely had resigned from his post on April 28, citing alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as one of the reasons for this and had said the Delhi unit was against the alliance.

In his resignation letter sent to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely also said that all unanimous decisions taken by the senior Delhi unit leaders had been “unilaterally vetoed” by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babria.

Amid the resignation, he had denied allegations of him being upset for not getting a ticket for the Lok Sabha elections. However, he was critical of Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj’s candidature from North East and North West Delhi. He had said they were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and party policies.

Previously, he had also insisted that he would not be joining any party and had only resigned from the post.

Lovely during his induction said, “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... 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...”

Lovely, along with other fellow Congress leaders former Delhi Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and former MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh, also joined him to the party.

A BJP leader said, “We welcome him to the party, he has rejoined, he may have learnt from his past mistakes. However, him becoming the candidate from East Delhi is false, our candidate remains Harsh Malhotra.”

He had contested from the East Delhi seat in 2019, in which he had come second behind cricketer Gautam Gambhir, while Atishi came third.

AAP and INDIA alliance candidate from New Delhi Somnath Bharti in a post on X said, “Along with GopalRai ji, Durgesh Pathak ji, Rajesh Gupta ji, Aaley Iqbal ji, I am waiting at the office of returning officer of the New Delhi parliamentary constituency for my turn for over two hours along with other desirous candidates. And there is a hot discussion going on that the BJP fearing massive defeat, to the extent of losing deposits, on New Delhi Lok Sabha and East Delhi Lok Sabha seats is contemplating changing their candidates to Hardeep Singh Puri ji and Arvinder Lovely ji, respectively. Even if they change candidates, people won’t change their decision and will vote the BJP out of power in 2024.”

‘No change in our candidate’

We welcome him to the party. He may have learnt from his past mistakes. However, making him candidate from East Delhi is false. Our candidate remains Harsh Malhotra. - A BJP leader

‘Will win all LS seats’

Almost everyone knew since the day he submitted his resignation from the Congress that he will join the BJP. This is BJP politics wherein they break other political parties. The INDIA bloc will win all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. - Saurabh Bhardwaj, AAP leader

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