Arvinder Singh Lovely, who recently resigned as Delhi Congress president over the grand old party's alliance with AAP for the Lok Sabha polls, formally joined the BJP on Saturday.
Lovely joined the party in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva and the party’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde.
Along with Lovely, former Congress MLAs Raj Kumar Chauhan, Naseeb Singh, Neeraj Basoya, and former Youth Congress President Amit Malik also joined the BJP at the saffron party's headquarters in the national capital.
Earlier, Lovely resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP in 2017. He, however, returned to the grand old party in 2018.
After his induction into the BJP, Lovely exuded confidence that the party would sweep all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and win the national polls.
"We have been given an opportunity to fight for the people of Delhi under the banner of BJP and under the leadership of Prime Minister (Narendra Modi). I have full hope and there is no doubt about it that the BJP government is being formed in the country with an overwhelming majority. In the coming days, the flag of the BJP will fly in Delhi too," he said.
Last month, Lovely said he would not join any political party following his resignation as the Delhi Congress chief.
In his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely was critical of Kanhaiya Kumar, the party's candidate from North East Delhi and North West Delhi nominee Udit Raj. He said both were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and party policies.
Lovely expressed his disappointment within the party ranks and said he felt "handicapped" as he was not able to work under the current system. He cited interference by the party's general secretary in-charge and alliance with the AAP in Delhi as major friction points.
Like Lovely, Naseeb Singh and Neeraj Basoya, in their resignation letters, had hit out at the Congress for forging an alliance with AAP in Delhi.
Under the seat-sharing pact, AAP will fight on four seats -- South Delhi, New Delhi, West Delhi and East Delhi -- and Congress three -- Northwest Delhi, Northeast Delhi and Chandni Chowk. Lok Sabha elections on seven seats of Delhi will be held on May 25.
Upon Lovely's joining, Tawde took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi over his candidature from Raebareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.
"Raebareli had posters of Priyanka Gandhi. Congress workers wanted her to fight from Raebareli. But, Rahul Gandhi came and filed his nomination from Raebareli. PM Modi’s slogan is 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao'. But Congress’ slogan is 'Beta Bachao, Beta Badhao'," he said.
"Fed up with such kinds of politics, Arvinder ji joined the BJP," he added.
"One who loves Delhi can’t stand with the person who has done corruption in Delhi," Sachdeva said, referring to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who is lodged in Tihar Jail in the liquor policy case.
