Former Delhi Cong leaders, including Arvinder Singh Lovely, join BJP
New Delhi, May 4: Former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the BJP on Saturday along with a few other leaders, including former MLAs Raj Kumar Chauhan, Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh.
All the former Congress leaders, who have publicly slammed the opposition party's alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls, joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, party general secretary Vinod Tawde and its Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni.
Lovely hailed the BJP leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for giving him and his colleagues the opportunity to join the party when they felt lost.
He asserted that Modi is set to retain power in the Lok Sabha polls and expressed confidence that the BJP's flag will fly high in Delhi as well.
The seven parliamentary seats in the national capital will go to polls on May 25 in the sixth round of the seven-phase elections, voting for which began on April 19. Votes will be counted on June 4.
A four-term former MLA like Chauhan, Lovely had recently quit as Delhi Congress president protesting the party's alliance with the AAP.
All these Congress leaders had echoed similar views. Amit Malik, a former youth Congress leader, also joined the BJP.
It is believed that these leaders were also upset with their party's choice of candidates, including Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj, for the Lok Sabha polls here.
This will be the second innings of Lovely in the BJP after he left it to rejoin the Congress in 2018 following a brief stay in the saffron party.
Puri praised these leaders and said the BJP will utilise their services effectively.
Lovely said the people of Delhi want to rid the city of the AAP government headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently in jail in the excise scam case.
Chauhan said the AAP government has pushed the city backwards after all the "development" seen earlier, a reference to the Congress government headed by Sheila Dikshit.
Both he and Lovely were ministers in her government.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said no one can stand with those who have "looted" the city as he welcomed them to his party.
INDIA bloc parties AAP and Congress are fighting the polls in Delhi under a seat-sharing arrangement. While the AAP has fielded candidates from four seats, the Congress is contesting the elections from three.
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BJP chief Vijayendra targets Siddaramaiah govt on law and order situation in Karnataka
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Saturday targeted the Congress government in the state alleging the collapse of the law and order situation and raised concerns about the safety of women, while urging the Siddaramaiah-led administration to "wake up" and take immediate measures in this regard.
He also reiterated the party's demand that the state government hand over the probe relating to cases of sexual abuse of women against Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna to the CBI.
"From the time Congress came to power in the state, the law and order situation has completely deteriorated. Murders and extortions are taking place everywhere. There is rise in rape and love jihad cases. There are questions about women's security," Vijayendra said.
While speaking to reporters here, he said, the deteriorating law and order situation is bringing disrepute to the state.
"There is a sense as though there is no government here and the police system is not functioning. As the government is not taking stringent measures, murders are on a rise in Karnataka. So we have held a protest across the state.
"It is already late now, we urge that the government should wake up at least now and discharge its duty of maintaining law and order, and take measures to give protection to women," he added.
Protests were held by the mahila morcha (women's wing) of BJP across the state today and memorandums were submitted to Deputy Commissioners in all districts. In Bengaluru a delegation led by senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda submitted a memorandum to Director General of Police (DGP) Alok Mohan.
The BJP's stand is very clear regarding cases involving Prajwal Revanna and charges of sexual abuse of women against him, Vijayendra, in response to a question, said and added that the state government has to take the issue seriously and handover the probe to the CBI.
"Every day new things are coming forward in this case. So I demand that without any delay the Hassan's Prajwal Revanna cases should be given to the CBI probe. Why is the government hesitant? Names of several senior leaders are also being heard in connection with the cases, and leak of alleged explicit videos. There cannot be fair probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT)," he said.
The BJP is not supporting anyone in connection with these cases and only wants justice for women victims, Vijayendra said, adding that "Instead of using the cases politically, government should immediately hand over them to the CBI aimed at providing justice for women victims...there is no question of any party here, it (alleged sexual abuse) was a henious crime, whoever is guilty, however big they are, they should be punished."
The state BJP chief was responding to party leader and advocate G Devaraje Gowda, who is in custody after being arrested in a sexual abuse case and is also facing charges of video leak, on Friday alleged that Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and four other ministers are behind the circulation of pen drives containing explicit videos involving Prajwal Revanna, and that he was being fixed in false cases as he did not agree to be part of their plan.
Gowda has even alleged that he was offered Rs 100 crore by Shivakumar to "bring a bad name" to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and to tarnish the image of JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy in Prajwal Revanna's obscene video case.
