NEW DELHI : Today, as the newly-appointed Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee interim chief Devender Yadav officially assumes the mantle for the post, we can expect interesting scenes at the Congress headquarters.
After the former occupier of the Delhi Congress chief’s chair, Arvinder Singh Lovely, and a band of other rebel Congress leaders, former MLAs, and AICC observers joined the BJP on Saturday, all eyes are now on the rest of the leaders among the 35 ex-MLAs who had expressed sympathy with the former Delhi Congress chief.
Party leaders have said today’s event is crucial for the city unit of the grand old party as it attempts to show strength and weigh the loyalty among its members. The intention behind the event is to communicate to the public that the Congress will endure, leaders claim.
“For this reason, all national and state-level leaders, and district and block-level workers of Delhi have been invited to attend the programme at the Congress headquarters. It will become clear who our loyalists are, especially at a time when Lovely has joined the BJP along with three of the rebel leaders,” a senior leader said.
Party leaders also murmured that there are speculations that Lovely will try to take ‘his faction’ along into the BJP folds. So, all those who met the former DPCC chief following his resignation from the party are being monitored, they said.
Lovely had claimed that 35 former Congress legislators had come in his support after his resignation. Three among them resigned from the party in the days that followed.
Lovely had, earlier, maintained that he will not resign from the Congress’ primary membership.
Yet, days after stepping down from the post of the Delhi Congress president, in protest against the party’s alliance with the AAP and candidatures from the Delhi Lok Sabha seats, Lovely crossed over to the rival BJP on Saturday. He had resigned from the post on last Sunday.
The three other leaders who joined the BJP treading Lovely’s footsteps, are former Congress MLAs, Rajkumar Chauhan, Neeraj Basoya, Naseeb Singh, all quiting the party citing similar reasons.