Lok Sabha Elections 2024: When ex-Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely said he was an 'ideological misfit' in BJP

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Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on May 4, about a week after resigning from the post of Delhi Congress chief. After his April 28 resignation, Lovely claimed he would not join any political party and had simply resigned from the post, and not from the party. With his induction in the BJP on Saturday, however, Lovely has joined the long list of Congress turncoats who have switched to the saffron party during the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

This is not the first time that Lovely, 55, has defected from the Congress for the BJP. In fact, it is the second time in less than ten years when he has quit as Delhi Congress chief and joined the BJP. Also Read: Lok Sabha Elections 2024: 10 high-profile Congress turncoats in BJP and their last electoral performance In February 2015, Lovely resigned from the post of Delhi Congress chief after the grand old party’s worst-ever performance in the Delhi Assembly elections.

The Congress, which had ruled the national capital for 15 years under Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, failed to win even one seat in the 70-member Delhi Assembly. Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had swept the elections winning 67 seats. The remaining three seats were bagged by the BJP.

Lovely, four-time former Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) tendered his resignation to the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi after taking moral responsibility for the election debacle. Two years later, on May 11, 2017, Lovely joined the BJP, a week ahead of Delhi municipal elections. He had levelled bribery allegations against the Congress party during the distribution of tickets ahead of municipal polls.