Delhi Congress President Arvinder Singh Lovely on Sunday resigned from his post, citing interference by the party’s general secretary in-charge and alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi as major friction points. In his resignation letter to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely said he felt handicapped and unable to continue as the president of the Delhi Congress unit.

He pointed out many instances when party leaders objected to the way Deepak Babaria, the Congress’s general secretary in-charge for Delhi, conducted the state of affairs. Lovely said that he was under great pressure to expel the leaders who objected to Babaria’s ways. Arvinder Singh Lovely said the Congress’s alliance with the AAP in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections, which he claimed was opposed by the  Delhi Congess unit.

 Lovely wrote in his letter to the Congress President that the state Congress Unit was against forming an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress, and in turn, whose half of the cabinet ministers are in jail on corruption charges. He further called the alliance a compromise to improve chances of victory for the Congress.

Arvinder Singh Lovely said while he respected the Congress’s alliance decision with Aam Aadmi party but he was upset by Congress’s North East Delhi seat candidate Kanhaiya Kumar praising AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. Lovely further said that according to the alliance, the Congress was allotted 3 Lok Sabha seats, of which 2 – North West and North East – constituencies were given to total strangers.

Udit Raj is a Congress-AAP joint candidate in North West Delhi, whereas Kanhaiya Kumar is contesting from the North East seat. Arvinder Singh Lovely said the announcement of Raj and Kumar as candidates had caused an uproar and protests by Delhi Congress leaders and workers within the party.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said that the candidates for prestigious Amethi and Rae Bareli seats in Uttar Pradesh will be announced in a few days. He was addressing a press conference where he claimed that though the BJP says the corrupt must be put in jails, when leaders facing corruption charges join the saffron party, they are put on the lap and sent to Rajya Sabha or assembly.

On being asked about the names of the candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies he said the people will have to wait for a few more days. He said when the names of candidates come from people to him and he will sign the notification, then the announcement will be made.

On being questioned about Congress leaders changing constituencies Kharge asked how many times have Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani changed their seats. His response came when asked about the BJP criticising Rahul Gandhi for fighting the elections from Kerala’s Wayanad instead of Amethi. Referring to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kharge said the Congress is not affected by people who grew up in the party and left it later.

The Congress president launched an all round attack on the BJP and PM Modi and said the prime minister did not implement even one of his electoral promises and still says Modi did a lot of work for the country. Addressing the press conference he said the BJP never fought for the independence of India, but Congress is a party of those who made India independent. He said the BJP never fought for the independence of India, for the development of India. The Congress President said the BJP speaks so much about patriotism and that the contribution of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri is nothing before them.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday said the BJP may be denying it now, but the party will change the Constitution if it returns to power. She targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over inflation and called him the mehengai man.

Gandhi said the BJP leaders and candidates are saying that they will change the Constitution. She said PM Modi is denying it and this is BJP’s tactic. Priyanka Gandhi was speaking at an election rally at Dharampur village of tribal dominated Valsad district, Gujarat held in support of Congress candidate for ST-reserved Valsad Lok Sabha seat, Anant Patel.

Gandhi said first the BJP will deny what they want to do. But after coming to power they will implement it. She further added the BJP wants to change the constitution to weaken the common people and deprive them of their rights given in the Constitution. She said the BJP leaders project the Prime Minister as powerful and say that chutki bajake ladai rukwa dete hai (he can stop the Russia- Ukraine war with the snap of his fingers). She asked why is Prime Minister unable to remove poverty just like that?

Priyanka Gandhi claimed the tribal population in Gujarat which is Modi’s home state and the whole country is suffering from issues like rising inflation, unemployment, low remumberation, loss of land, violence against women and other atrocities. She highlighted the Congress manifesto and said it addresses issues faced by the tribal population.

She assured the people that the Congress will bring schemes like MGNREGA for urban areas where families will get 100 days of guaranteed work. She said the Congress is committed to filing about 30 lakh vacancies in government jobs, providing subsidised diesel to fishermen and take the minimum wage to Rs 400. Gandhi said the Congress is going to work out sub plans for Scheduled Tribes and scheduled castes.