Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday appointed Devender Yadav as the interim chief of the party’s Delhi unit, two days after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post citing his inability to continue without a free hand.
Mr. Lovely’s resignation had come as a shock to the Congress, which is hoping to revive its fortunes in the Capital, where it has not been able to win any of the seven Lok Sabha seats since 2014. The resignation also brought to the fore resentment within a section of the Congress over the seat-sharing pact with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the decision to give tickets to “outsiders”, such as Udit Raj, a BJP turncoat, and Kanhaiya Kumar, overlooking the local leaders.
Mr. Yadav is a former MLA from Delhi’s Badli and the AICC in-charge for Punjab. Thanking the Congress leadership, Mr. Yadav said his priority will be to bridge the rift within the party.
‘Will listen to all’
He said, “The only solution is to listen to everyone. There are many senior leaders in the Delhi unit who have worked hard for the party. Some of them have spoken openly, others I will meet soon.”
AICC treasurer Ajay Maken termed Mr. Yadav’s appointment the “right choice”. In a post on X, Mr. Maken said without taking any name, “In politics, things don’t always go our way. Sometimes, our desires remain unfulfilled, our voices unheard. Yet, does this justify undermining the very organisation that defines our political identity? Should we repeatedly inflict harm on our organisation for personal gains?”
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said the Congress in Delhi is a “sinking ship”. “The local Congress leaders want to revive the party, but its central leadership wants the Delhi unit to play second fiddle to [CM] Arvind Kejriwal, who had, in 2013, pushed the Congress out of power,” he said.
