In what is being viewed as a huge blow for India's main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, its Delhi chief Arvinder Singh Lovely has resigned from his position over differences regarding the alliance with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
According to the seat-sharing formula agreed on by Congress and the AAP, the former would field candidates in three constituencies in Delhi, while the latter would contest four seats. The Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian parliament) polls in Delhi are scheduled to take place on 25 May.
However, many top AAP leaders, including party supremo Kejriwal, are currently lodged in jail on corruption charges, something Lovely stated didn't go down well with his party's workers in Delhi.
"The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a party (AAP) which was formed on the sole basis of leveling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress. Despite that, the party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi", he said in a letter written to party boss Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday.
It is worth noting that Lovely isn't the first prominent Congress politician to raise questions about the party's poll strategies or having alliances in the ongoing general elections in India.
Previously, the party's former Mumbai chief and parliamentarian Sanjay Nirupam left the political outfit after he criticized Congress' move to join hands with Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) for the national polls in the country.
Among other high profile names who have distanced themselves from the Congress are Gourav Vallabh, a former party spokesman, and boxer Vijender Singh, with both joining the BJP after labeling the Grand Old Party as "directionless".