Leaders went to Kejriwal’s house the day he was arrested under pressure from Congress high command: Arvinder Singh Lovely

If he thinks that the alliance was formed due to my initiatives, then he must consider me to be a really big leader, so much so that they didn’t listen to Sonia ji or Rahul ji but ended up being part of the alliance because of me. Do you think that I will be the one to take the alliance forward and then not keep a Lok Sabha seat for myself? The INDIA bloc was formed in April, back when the first meeting took place in Patna. I was not president of DPCC at that point of time. The second meeting took place in Bengaluru, and I was still not the president at that point in time. The third meeting took place in Mumbai and I was still not president of DPCC. I became the president on September 1, and right after that Sanjay Singh was imprisoned. Then how does he know that the alliance was formed because of me?

How has the alliance affected morale of Congress workers?

This feeling against the alliance is rooted in the fact that Ajay Maken did a press conference on Kejriwal’s ‘Sheesh Mahal’… the DPCC president before me, Anil Chaudhary, had registered an FIR against (Kejriwal), Sandeep Dikshit had openly opposed the alliance — even though I never openly criticised it, these facts are not hidden from anyone… Nonetheless, the high command made a decision to go forward with the alliance so I tried my best to ensure the whole party fell in line. On the night when Kejriwal was arrested, I visited his house, and I also took Sandeep Dikshit and Subhash Chopra along with me due to the high command’s directions. Do you think Sandeep Dikshit, against whose mother the AAP had been putting allegations, would visit Kejriwal’s house had there not been any pressure from the high command? There, I said that I was against the timing of the arrest; we never gave them a clean chit.

Which old party leaders would have been a better fit for the Lok Sabha candidature as opposed to Udit Raj and Kanhaiya Kumar?

I do not want to comment on this because right now this is not the issue. I will also go into the merits of candidates someday but currently the issue is, and my only grudge, is that when you’re announcing candidates, you should at least informally inform the DPCC about your final decision. Just as everybody else got to know about the final candidates through the media, so did I. Despite being DPCC president, I was not informed; there is a basic dignity that should be maintained.

Has anyone from the high command approached you after your resignation? How do you feel about the fact that the high command accepted your resignation without taking much time?

You all allege that the Congress takes a lot of time in making decisions. They accused me of leaking my resignation letter; you can ask any media person if I gave them the letter and they’ll say no. I am writing a letter to my president, and right after I write it, it gets leaked. Within 4 hours, a decision is also made regarding my resignation when it could have easily taken them 4 hours to read and understand my letter. Do you understand what the conspiracy is? I have been pleading with them to let me stay as a Congress worker, to leave me alone, to not annoy me and to not force me into taking any further steps.

An ex-MLA of your party alleged you have made a pact with the BJP…

These are childish allegations. There are many small-time politicians who have by chance become one-time MLAs. All parties have already declared their candidates, how can any party change their candidates once they have been announced? And that too a ruling party which has the most chances of forming the government?

You mentioned in your letter that a lot of decisions were getting vetoed and that the Delhi wing used to not have a say. Was the MCD alliance a decision that was unanimously taken by the high command?

Once the decision of an alliance has been made, then how can there not be an alliance at the MCD? Principally, when you have agreed to have an alliance with the party then that comes naturally.

Could this also mean that an alliance will take place in the Delhi Assembly, as leaders of the party have been saying that the alliance will go beyond June 5?

I cannot comment on that but my problem and the problem of the Congress worker is that even in this election, we are not comfortable. The AAP had only joined the alliance because the Delhi wing had made a lot of progress in the last 5 months and we all know about the situation in Punjab.