Former Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, who returned to BJP on Saturday, made scathing remarks against the Congress while stating that the party which was once used to be a nationalistic and patriotic party has now leaders of the ‘tukde tukde gang’.
Lovely, who resigned from his post in Congress on March 28, shared an anecdote of his college days when he used to be in the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and said that they were made to hear a recording of a speech by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. “In my NSUI days we were made to hear a recording of Indira Gandhi’s speech in which she said ‘mai apne khoon ka katra katra is desh k liye lagati hu’. Now the ideology of the party has changed from ‘Katra,Katra’ to ‘tukde, tukde,” he said while taking a jibe at joint INDIA alliance and Congress candidate Kanhaiya Kumar from Northeast Delhi.
Previously, he had quit the Congress and joined the BJP along with Malik in April 2017. However, within a few months he switched back to the Congress in 2018. Since then he was in the Congress that he left over differences with the party leadership over choice of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi.
“Last time I had taken the decision to quit the Congress due to anger. This time, however, we have taken the decision with a cool head and much thought. Now, we will do politics here (in BJP) only or quit politics instead of leaving the party,” Lovely told reporters at Delhi BJP office.
He further said that once if you talked in favour of the nation, people assumed you were a Congress supporter but it’s not the same anymore. “When we used to talk about anything which is related to the nation’s growth and development, people assumed you were from the Congress party but it is not the same anymore. Now when you say so, people assume you are from BJP,” he said.
Moreover, he also attacked the joint INDIA alliance and Congress candidate Udit Raj for the North west Delhi seat and claimed he asked Dalit to not go to the temple. “What can you say to someone like that?” he asked. Lovely, who has switched sides for the third time, also asserted that if he doesn’t remain in BJP, he will even then not join the Congress. “I will give up my political career rather than going anywhere other than BJP,” he said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, who accompanied Lovely, said that he and other leaders will be free to decide their role in the party. Lovely said that in any party, the role of a worker is most important and he will assume that role and campaign for the party wherever he is asked to go. Further, the former Delhi Minister has also been named as the star campaigner by the saffron party ahead of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections.
Former Congress MLAs Raj Kumar Chauhan, Naseeb Singh and Neeraj Basoya and former Youth Congress President Amit Mallik were also present at the event .
He also called the INDIA alliance “unnatural between parties”. Taking a dig at the opposition bloc, Lovely said that recently the Delhi unit chief of the NCP, Yoganand Shastri, was weaned away by the Congress. The NCP is a constituent of the INDIA bloc. “I don’t understand how alliance partners can break each other’s party. What is this alliance? Hence, I say it doesn’t come together well,” he remarked.
He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Delhi BJP for his entry into the saffron outfit, saying he earlier also had friendly relations with many leaders in the party. Lovely asserted that after joining of former Congress leaders like himself and Chauhan, there was no contest left in East Delhi and North East Delhi constituencies lying in trans Yamuna part of the city, hinting to the role they would play to spoil the chances of the INDIA bloc candidates on the two seats.
Lovely claimed that the AAP campaigning in four seats in Delhi was not even using the name of the Congress and its leaders and was still expecting to get the votes of the party workers and supporters which was not going to happen this time.
