Congress picks Devender Yadav as interim chief of Delhi unit

New Delhi [India], May 1 : Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday appointed Devender Yadav as the interim chief of the party's Delhi unit, days after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post citing his inability to continue without a free hand and criticising the alliance with AAP.
"Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has appointed Yadav as the interim president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) with immediate effect," a statement issued by the Congress on Tuesday said.
Yadav will continue in his role as AICC in-charge for Punjab, the statement added.
Devender Yadav won from the Badli assembly constituency in Delhi in 2008 and 2013 and lost to Ajesh Yadav of AAP in 2015, and is currently the All India Congress Committee's (AICC) Punjab in-charge.
Later in a post on X, Yadav while affirming his commitment for the party, expressed his gratitude to Kharge.
"My heartfelt thanks to Sh Kharge ji, Smt Sonia Gandhi ji, Rahul Gandhi ji, KC Venugopal ji and Smt Priyanka Gandhi ji and all senior leaders of the Congress, for the faith they have bestowed in me yet again!" Yadav said, adding "Will try my best to tread the coveted and ideological vision party has laid for me and give my 100 per cent!"
Congress leader Ajay Maken also took to X and said that Yadav is the right choice for post.
"In politics, things don't always go our way. Sometimes, our desires remain unfulfilled, our voices unheard--yet, does this justify undermining the very organisation that defines our political identity? Should we repeatedly inflict harm on our organisation for personal gains?...He (Devender Yadav) is the right choice, and I wish him success in his new role," Maken said.
In his resignation letter sent to the Congress president on Saturday, Lovely had said that he found himself "handicapped" as all unanimous decisions taken by senior Delhi unit leaders were "unilaterally vetoed" by the AICC's Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria.
"The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a party which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress Party. Despite that, the Party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi...," Arvinder Singh Lovely wrote in his resignation letter.
Lovely was appointed to the post in August 2023.
In his letter to the Congress National President, Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely said that all unanimous decisions taken by the Senior Delhi Congress leaders have been unilaterally vetoed by the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge).
"Since my appointment as DPCC President, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed me to make any senior appointments in the DPCC. My request for the appointment of a veteran leader as Media head of DPCC was blatantly rejected. To date, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed the DPCC to appoint all Block presidents in the city. Resultantly more than 150 blocks in Delhi do not presently have a Block President," he said.
Lovely had also criticised Congress candidates -- Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi and Udit Raj from North West Delhi -- for their statements and said tickets were given to two people who were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and party policies.