4-term ex-MLA Lovely is Delhi Congress chief

New Delhi, August 31

In the midst of speculations about seat-sharing arrangement between Congress and AAP in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Thursday appointed Arvinder Singh Lovely as the new chief of the party’s Delhi state unit.

All India Congress Committee general secretary KC Venugopal, in a release on Thursday, announced Lovely’s appointment.

“The Congress president has appointed Arvinder Singh Lovely as president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect,” the release read. It added that the party appreciated the contribution of outgoing president Anil Chaudhary.

Lovely, a four-term former MLA from Gandhi Nagar constituency, has also been the Urban Development and Education Minister between 2003 and 2013 during the Sheila Dikshit government in Delhi.

Lovely left the Congress for a year in 2017 to join the BJP and rejoined in 2018. He had held the post of DPCC chief earlier as well between 2013 and 2015. His appointment comes at a time when in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Congress and AAP have come together under the INDIA bloc.

However, there has been no decision yet on what the alliance will entail when it comes to seat-sharing in Delhi and Punjab. Several Delhi Congress leaders have been vocal against a tie-up with the AAP, but have left the decision to the Congress high command. Lovely will have his work cut out for him to try and revive the party, which has not won a single Lok Sabha seat or an MLA seat since the 2013 Assembly elections.