Congress appoints Devender Yadav as interim chief of Delhi unit

PTI

New Delhi, April 30

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 criticising the party's alliance with AAP and statements of the party's candidates in the national capital.

Yadav, who won from the Badli assembly constituency in Delhi in 2008 and 2013 and lost to Ajesh Yadav of AAP in 2015, is currently the AICC in-charge of Punjab.

“Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has appointed Yadav as the interim president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) with immediate effect,” a statement issued by the party said.

Yadav will continue in his role as AICC in-charge for Punjab, the statement added.

The development comes as the parties prepare for the May 25 election to the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.

In his resignation letter sent to the Congress president on Saturday, Lovely had said that he found himself “handicapped” as all unanimous decisions taken by senior Delhi unit leaders have been “unilaterally vetoed” by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria.

The Delhi Congress unit was against the alliance with AAP but the party high command went ahead with it, Lovely had said as his resignation brought to the fore the party's factional feud.

He had also criticised Congress candidates - Kanhaiya Kumar from Northeast Delhi and Udit Raj from Northwest Delhi - for their statements and said that tickets were given to two people who are total strangers to the Delhi Congress and party policies.

With a section of leaders demanding the removal of Babaria, the AICC Delhi in-charge had said it was “unfortunate” that Lovely's resignation came at a time when the general elections in the country were underway, but asserted that it won't affect the Congress, while the Aam Aadmi Party termed it an internal matter of its ally.

The BJP said it was an “unnatural alliance” forged by the leadership of AAP and Congress to “shield their corruption”, but their party workers had not accepted it.

Lovely resigned from the post of Delhi Congress president in 2015 as well. He joined the BJP in 2017 but returned to the Congress almost nine months later.

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