Two more former MLAs quit Cong, cite AAP tie-up

Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar with AAP leader Sanjay Singh.

Former Congress legislators Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh have resigned from the party over the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party, citing various corruption charges that AAP leaders have been accused of — highlighting simmering internal conflicts within the Congress, less than a month before the seven Lok Sabha seats in the Capital go to the polls.

The Congress and the AAP are contesting the general elections in multiple states as part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc. The two parties in February finalised their seat-sharing agreement for the polls in Delhi, according to which, the AAP will contest from four of the seven seats in the Capital, while the Congress has fielded candidates for the remaining three constituencies.

However, not all Congress functionaries have been on board with the party’s alliance with the AAP — on April 27, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely had stepped down from his post, citing the Congress-AAP alliance as well as organisational frictions within the party.

Delhi BJP hit out at Congress over the resignations. “Due to the callous working of its central leadership, the Congress party is on the verge of collapse in Delhi. It is shocking to see that four senior Congress leaders resigned one after the other, but still its central leadership is ignoring the issue. The only fault of these four leaders is that they spoke against the corruption and misdeeds of the Arvind Kejriwal government. It is surprising to see that Congress in Delhi will now be led by a man who will call the Aam Aadmi Party and (Punjab CM) Bhagwant Mann corrupt in Punjab, but will share the dias in Delhi with same Mann, calling the AAP a symbol of development,” said Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva.

HT reached out to AAP, but did not get any response to request for comment.

Basoya, in a letter addressed to Congress president Mallkarjun Kharge dated May 1, said that the alliance with the AAP has brought “great disrepute” to the Congress.

“The alliance is bringing great disrepute and embarrassment to Delhi Congress workers on a daily basis… Our continued alliance with the AAP is extremely humiliating given that the AAP has been associated with numerous scams in the past 7 years. The top 3 leaders of the AAP — Arvind Kejriwal, Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia — are already in jail… The AAP, throughout its existence, has continuously levelled serious allegations against our party and top leadership. By allying with AAP despite the above position, it is appearing that the Congress Party is attempting to give a clean chit to AAP and appreciate the deceitful propaganda of development of AAP. I can no longer be a part of any such attempt,” Basoya said.

Basoya, who was the Kasturba Nagar legislator between 2008 to 2013, was the AICC observer for the West Delhi parliamentary seat for the present elections.

Meanwhile, Singh, in a letter to Kharge dated April 30, said that he resigned because he was “deeply pained and humiliated” by the steps taken by the Congress.

“You have appointed Devender Yadav as DPCC (interim) chief. He as AICC (in- charge Punjab) has uptill now run a campaign in Punjab solely based on attacking Arvind Kejriwal’s false agenda and today, he in Delhi will be mandated to praise and support AAP and its chief Arvind Kejriwal. Being deeply pained and humiliated at the recent developments in the Party, I resign,” Singh, the MLA from Vishwas Nagar constituency between 1998 and 2013, wrote.

New PCC interim chief takes charge

Devender Yadav, who was appointed the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) interim president after Lovely stepped down, formally took charge of the post on Wednesday.

“We are continuously working to strengthen Delhi Congress at the booth level, to take the message of justice to every home, and to ensure the victory of Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. It is our responsibility to make Congress’s guarantee reach all the households,” Yadav said.

The Congress and the AAP are only in alliance in certain states — Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Chandigarh and Goa. In Punjab, the two parties are contesting elections against each other because AAP is a ruling party in Punjab and Congress is the main opposition party.

This leaves Yadav in a very peculiar situation, given his responsibilities as the AICC Punjab in-charge — he will have to back AAP Lok Sabha candidates in the Capital, but oppose them in Punjab.

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