New Delhi: Former MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh, who were appointed as observers for West Delhi and North West Delhi parliamentary constituencies, resigned Wednesday from the Congress party, calling the alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) “great embarrassment” and questioning the decision to field “outsiders”.
This comes two days after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post of Delhi Congress chief, citing similar reasons apart from differences with party’s Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria.
Since the alliance with the AAP was announced in February, there has been discomfort in the local unit, especially at the grassroot level, as Congress workers have been working hard to rebuild the party after its humiliating defeat in 2015, several senior leaders told ThePrint.
After ruling Delhi for 15 years, the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress government came down in the city after Arvind Kejriwal led the AAP to a resounding win in 2015. The party has since then no MLA in Delhi. It also has no MP from the national capital since 2014.
If the alliance was not bad enough, the party’s decision to give four out of seven parliamentary seats to the AAP despite Congress the candidates getting second highest votes in 2019 and decision to field “outsiders” has made matters worse for the party in Delhi.
“The alliance is bringing disrepute and embarrassment to Delhi Congress workers on a daily basis,” Basoya wrote in his resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
His colleague Singh questioned the decision to ally with the AAP, which came to power in Delhi on “false publicity and malafide propaganda against the Congress”.
“We didn’t even fight to get five seats in Delhi despite getting second highest votes in 2019. It is embarrassing that in New Delhi Lok Sabha seat, our party leaders will be cast their vote in support to the AAP candidate due to the alliance,” Singh said.
Former Congress MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Nasseb Singh resign from the primary membership of the party.
"Our continued alliance, with 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… pic.twitter.com/cYtrd0FTYl
— ANI (@ANI) May 1, 2024
During an election rally in Rajasthan last month, PM Narendra Modi mocked the Congress at a rally in Banswara for not contesting from the New Delhi seat. “This is the first time in the history after Independence that the royal family of the Congress party, which lives in Delhi, is not going to vote for itself…,” he remarked.
Singh and Basoya said that the alliance appears like an attempt to give a “clean chit to AAP”, which they alleged was involved in “numerous scams”.
After resigning from the party, Lovely had said that there is no mention of Congress leaders, including Kharge or Rahul Gandhi, in the posters or campaigns of AAP candidates whereas Kanhaiya Kumar is using Kejriwal’s photograph in his election campaigns and praising the work done by AAP government in Delhi.
Also Read: AAP, Congress workers caught in an awkward situationship in Delhi; bickering on the ground
‘Alliance with AAP will hurt party in long run’
In Delhi, the AAP is contesting on four Lok Sabha seats and Congress on three. But in Punjab, another state where the Congress lost its support base to the AAP, the two parties will be face to face in the Lok Sabha elections.
Questioning the decision, Basoya said, “This shows the party’s double standard. In Punjab, the state unit is targeting the AAP, but we are not talking about its corruption in Delhi. What makes the situation laughable is that Devender Yadav, who is party in-charge of Punjab, was made interim president of Delhi Congress. How will Yadav explain the double standard?”
Yadav said the two resignations were “unfortunate” and added that the two were part of the meeting where the decision to contest in alliance with AAP was taken.
“This decision was taken months back. The two were appointed as observers of Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi. They didn’t object then. It is unfortunate that they have resigned from the party; such developments before elections are not good for the party,” Yadav told ThePrint.
“In Delhi and Punjab, I have different roles to play. I’m not the face of the party in Punjab, or contesting the election there; I’m in a management role there. The state unit in Punjab will go all out to counter the AAP.”
While Congress workers are coordinating with AAP in campaigning, local unit leaders admit that workers aren’t happy with the alliance and this will hurt the party in the assembly elections. “Today, we are seeking votes for AAP candidates. How will we go to the same voter and ask for support in assembly elections?” said a local leader in South Delhi.
Some in the party feel that the alliance will continue even in the assembly election. “We don’t know what the party leadership will decide. Looks like this arrangement might continue even after the Lok Sabha polls. There has to be a larger plan,” said another leader in East Delhi.
Lovely’s decision to step down as the Delhi unit chief just weeks before the start of the election campaign, many in the party admit will have an adverse impact.
Upset with ‘outsiders’ getting preference
The decision to field Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi and former BJP MP Udit Raj from North West Delhi has made matters worse.
In his resignation letter, Naseeb Singh said that the senior leadership has “disrespected” the party workers by giving tickets to “outsiders who have no association or connection with the party’s ideology”.
Calling Udit Raj an “AAP candidate”, Singh wrote, “The North West Delhi candidate has no respect for the local party workers. (He) calls the Congress party a 4 percent vote bank party and claims that he doesn’t need help from local Congress workers.
As for Naseeb Singh’s accusation against him, Raj said, “I spoke the truth. The party’s voteshare had reduced to around 4 percent in the assembly elections. People like Naseeb Singh should have tried to revive the party. Why didn’t they do it then? Today, they are calling me an outsider. I live in Delhi and have represented North West Delhi in 2014. How can they call me an outsider?”
Known to not have the best of relations with Udit Raj, former Delhi minister Rajkumar Chauhan said that the Congress candidate from North West Delhi sent him a legal notice for defamation.
“I’m very much a part of the Congress party, as my resignation has not been accepted so far. This is the situation in the party that party leaders are sending defamation notices to other party leaders,” Chauhan said.
There were earlier reports that Chauhan had resigned from the party alleging “humiliation” by Delhi Congress in-charge Deepak Babaria.
Udit Raj said that he has taken legal action against Rajkumar Chauhan as he has been spreading misinformation about him. “I’ve taken action, as nobody has the right to defame me and spread wrong information. I had also asked the party to take action against such people.”
When asked about the legal notice sent to Chauhan, Devender Yadav said, “We are not aware about it. This is his (Udit Raj) personal decision.”
“We are contesting on just three seats. The party leadership should have carefully thought about the decision to ally with AAP and field outsiders if they are serious about rebuilding the party in the state,” said Singh.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Congress to play second fiddle to AAP in Delhi alliance, concedes seats in Haryana & Gujarat, too