My conscience forbade me from forcing Congress loyalists to be expelled: Arvinder Singh Beautiful

The tallest Sikh leader in the national capital and senior Congressman Arvinder Singh Lovely announced on Tuesday that he had resigned as president of the Delhi Congress to avoid the “continuous pressure being exerted on him to suspend hardcore Congressmen whose generations dedicated their lives for the party and not because of a pre-Lok Sabha poll alliance with AAP.”

“The general secretary wanted me to act against diehard Congress leaders who were upset that two of the only three seats we got in a pre-poll pact with AAP had been handed out to outsiders,” Lovely said in a statement to The Tribune, criticizing Dipak Babaria, the AICC general secretary (Delhi and Haryana).

As factional battles erupted within the state Congress unit, Lovely stated, “Even an ordinary politician would know that on election eve, we need to pacify those who are upset, not expel them.” Ajay Maken, an ex-minister and member of the Congress Working Committee, led a group that won the first round of voting, and Maken loyalist Devender Yadav replaced Lovely as interim chief of the Delhi unit.

Lovely expressed his surprise at how quickly his resignation was accepted.

Lovely said, “I had hoped to be engaged with the Lok Sabha poll that looms on May 25. The Congress, which is famous for delaying decisions, accepted my four-page resignation letter within hours and the general secretary concluded soon thereafter that I had resigned under BJP pressure, a patent lie.”

Along with Raj Kumar Chauhan, a PWD minister in the late Sheila Dikshit-led state government for 12 years, Congress district president Surinder Kumar, a former three-time MLA, Sheila Dikshit’s son and former MP Sandeep Dikshit, and roughly fifteen block presidents, the former head of the Delhi Congress also revealed that Babaria wanted him to take action against these individuals.

“These leaders (read Kanhaiya Kumar in North East Delhi and Udit Raj in North West Delhi) protested outside the Delhi state Congress office against the ticket being given to outsiders.” Not banished, but pacified, was what was required. Without my knowledge, the party headquarters convened a meeting of the disciplinary committee. I received messages asking for justification and suspending them. I resigned because my conscience would not let me,” Lovely stated. He said that party heavyweights such as late actor Rajesh Khanna, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former minister Arjun Singh, and former chief minister Sheila Dikshit have all been welcomed as outsider nominees by Delhi Congress leaders in the past.

However, we went too far this time around with our outsider candidates. Lovely added, “As state chief, I wasn’t even told who the candidates will be. The AAP-Congress alliance wasn’t the reason I quit; in fact, unlike in Punjab, I made sure Delhi cadres fell in line with the alliance.”

In response to a question about his future plans amid rumors that the BJP may nominate him in lieu of its East Delhi candidate, Lovely said, “I have been meeting my supporters.” The Congress doesn’t need to be afraid since I haven’t declared my departure. But it doesn’t help that they keep making hurtful remarks about me. They need to quit making fun of me.

Lovely had already left the Congress in May 2017 to join the BJP, and she returned in February 2018.

Tallest Sikh politician in Congress in Delhi

Since Mahinder Singh Saathi’s 2003 retirement from public office, Arvinder Singh Lovely has served as the tallest Sikh leader of the Congress in Delhi.
When he was initially elected from Gandhi Nagar in 1998, he was the youngest MLA, and he held the position until 2015.
was one of the eight Congress leaders who prevailed in the 2013 Assembly elections after the party’s annihilation by the AAP.
He ran an unsuccessful campaign in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from East Delhi, finishing second behind Gautam Gambhir of the BJP, with Atishi of the AAP placing third.