Arvinder Lovely leads four rebels to BJP, NCP loses city head to Congress

On the other hand, former Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri returned to the Congress.

Lovely, former Delhi Minister Raj Kumar Chahuan, ex-MLAs Neeraj Basoya, Naseeb Singh and former Delhi Youth Congress president Amit Malik were welcomed into the BJP by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde, and Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva. “I joined the Congress at the age of 18, when Indira (Gandhi) ji had famously said ‘Mere khoon ka katra katra desh ke liye hai (Each drop of my blood is dedicated to the nation)’; today katra katra has been replaced by tukde tukde,” Lovely told The Indian Express, taking a swipe at Kanhaiya Kumar.

“BJP has declared its (Lok Sabha) candidates; I have not come for a ticket or the post of minister. I do not care about gaining or losing anything. I rejoined the BJP with more clarity than last time in support of the nationalist cause, come what may,” he added.

Speaking at the event, Lovely pledged “contribution to the nation’s development and the fight against corruption in Delhi” and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi “gave us an opportunity when we were politically lost”.

This is the second time that Lovely, Chauhan and Malik have joined the BJP; all three previously spent periods ranging from eight months to a year with it between 2017 and 2018.
What are BJP’s plans for Lovely?

BJP sources said the former Congress leaders were being viewed as potential candidates for the 2025 Delhi Assembly polls; Lovely, a political strongman from East Delhi, however, would have “additional responsibilities” as its Sikh face. “He had left (the BJP) due to issues with a few junior leaders in Delhi but that will not be a problem this time; we have larger plans for him. Lovely will be the face of our trust in Sikh-led governance and experience with administration,” a senior BJP leader said.

Lovely’s resignation as Delhi Congress chief came a day after over a thousand members of the Sikh community were inducted into the BJP in national president JP Nadda’s presence. Lovely met Nadda after his induction. “He (Lovely) is our solution to exit the limitations of gurdwara politics which Sikh representation has been limited to in Delhi. He will also elevate our pitch against the Congress on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, particularly targetting the Congress’s ‘Nyay guarantee’ in the context of riot victims…,” the leader added.

Reacting, interim Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav called Lovely “an opportunist” while a senior Delhi Congress leader alleged he had “joined the BJP under pressure” in relation to “old criminal cases against him”.

Meanwhile, 81-year-old Shastri, a former Assembly Speaker and three-time MLA considered a close aide of former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit, returned to the Congress three years after he joined the Nationalist Congress Party as its Delhi president in 2021. “This is not ‘ghar wapsi’… I was in the next house to this one… both homes have almost the same principles and beliefs… it is everyone’s duty to fight the evil forces seeking to break the country… trying to do Hindu-Muslim to get the vote of the majority is disgusting,” Shastri said.