The factional feud in the Delhi Congress intensified on Wednesday after former Congress MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Nasseb Singh resigned from the primary membership of the party. The former MLAs criticised the Congress's decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi and expressed displeasure at the nomination of Udit Raj from North-West Delhi constituency.
The development comes days after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned as Delhi Congress chief. On Tuesday, the Congress appointed its Punjab in-charge Devender Yadav as the interim president of its Delhi unit.
In his letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Neeraj Basoya said the alliance with AAP was bringing "great disrepute" and "embarrassment" to Delhi Congress workers on a daily basis.
"Our alliance with AAP is extremely humiliating given that the AAP has been associated with numerous scams in the past 7 years. The top three leaders of the AAP - Arvind Kejriwal, Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia are already in jail," the letter said.
"I believe, that as a self-respecting party leader, I cannot be associated with the party any more," Basoya said.
Nasseb Singh, in his letter to Kharge, cited the dichotomy of the Congress in Punjab and in Delhi.
"You have appointed Davender Yadav as DPCC chief. He, as AICC (in-charge Punjab), has run a campaign in Punjab solely based on attacking Arvind Keiriwal's false agenda and today, in Delhi, he will be mandated to praise and support AAP. Being deeply pained and humiliated at the recent developments, I resign from the party," he said.
While the Congress is contesting the Lok Sabha election in Delhi in alliance with the AAP, both parties are rivals in Punjab and have fielded candidates against each other.
Last week, Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned as Delhi Congress chief, saying he was not able to work under the current system.
Lovely, who had joined the BJP in 2017 only to return to the Congress months later, said he found himself "handicapped" as all decisions taken by senior Delhi unit leaders were "unilaterally vetoed" by the AICC's Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria.
He also criticised the decision to give tickets to Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi and Udit Raj from North West Delhi, saying they were "total strangers" to the Delhi Congress and party policies.
