Two former Congress MLAs from Delhi quit party, slam alliance with AAP

PTI, May 1, 2024, 4:20 PM IST

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New Delhi: Close on the heels of Arvinder Singh Lovely resigning from the post of Congress’ Delhi unit chief, former party MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh have quit the party in protest against the alliance with AAP.

The Congress had on Tuesday appointed former MLA Devender Yadav as interim president of its Delhi unit after Lovely resigned citing the tie-up with AAP and statements of Congress candidates in the national capital, exposing the cracks in the party’s Delhi unit.

In separate letters to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh, who are AICC observers for West Delhi and North West Delhi Lok Sabha seats respectively, claimed the Congress workers are ”upset” and feel ”humiliated” due to the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party.

”I humbly submit that the said alliance is bringing great disrepute and embarrassment to Delhi Congress workers on a daily basis, and I believe that as a self-respecting party leader, I cannot continue to be associated with the party any more,” Basoya said while resigning from the primary membership of the Congress.

He said the continued alliance with the AAP is ”extremely humiliating given that AAP has been associated with numerous scams” in the past seven years.

The top three leaders of AAP — Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Satyendar Jain and Manish Sisodia — are already in jail. Their party has been accused of serious corruption charges on various issues such as the Delhi liquor scam and Delhi Jal Board scam, Basoya said in his letter.

Also, AAP has throughout its existence levelled serious allegations against the Congress and its top leadership, he said.

”By allying with AAP despite the above position, it appears that the Congress party is attempting to give a clean chit to AAP and appreciate the deceitful propaganda of development of AAP,” he said, adding, ”I can no longer be a part of any such attempt”.

Basoya said that as the AICC observer for the West Delhi parliamentary seat for the 2024 parliamentary elections, he has witnessed anger amongst the Congress workers over the last month.

”They feel extremely humiliated by this alliance. However, the high command is appearing to be indifferent to their feelings,” he stated.

Singh, in his letter, said that Davinder Yadav, who is also AICC (in-charge Punjab), has till now run a campaign in Punjab solely based on attacking Keiriwal’s ”false agenda.

”And today, he will be mandated to praise and support AAP and Kejriwal in Delhi,” he said.

The Congress and AAP are not in alliance in Punjab.

”In 2012-2013, AAP had emerged based on malafide propaganda against the Congress in the city. In doing so, AAP on a daily basis, abused our leadership and claimed that they have been involved in corruption.

”As widely publicised, AAP had asked for the arrest of former Delhi CM Sheila Dixit and former party chairperson Sonia Gandhi,” he said in the letter.

Since coming to power, AAP has failed to prove any of the allegations against the party. ”Today, the people of Delhi have realised AAP’s true colours and have understood that it has become a haven of corruption,” the letter claimed, Singh said he has opposed the alliance since the beginning at every party platform.

”However, in total disregard of my opinion and the views of other Delhi Congress leaders, the high command has decided to ally with the AAP. This will finish off the party in Delhi. Majority of Congress workers in Delhi are extremely upset about the alliance,” Singh wrote.

Singh also alleged that the high command has also ”disrespected every Delhi Congress worker by giving tickets in North West Delhi and North East Delhi seats to two complete outsiders who have no association or connection with the party’s ideology”.

He said that as the AICC observer, North West Delhi Parliamentary seat, he has observed that the candidate has no respect for the local party worker.

”The North West Delhi candidate is practically an AAP candidate on a Congress ticket. The same is true with the Northeast Delhi candidate. In reality, the present position is that the Congress is only fighting the election on 1 seat in Delhi,” he wrote in his letter.

Lovely had also criticised the two Congress candidates — Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi and Udit Raj from North West Delhi — for their statements and had said tickets were given to two people who were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and party policies.