A group of Congress supporters staged a rally outside the office of the party's star candidate for Northeast Delhi Lok Sabha seat, Kanhaiya Kumar, and demanded a local candidate for the upcoming polls. The sit-in took place near the Maujpur metro station, where Navdeep Sharma, a protester, said the community needed someone from its midst to figure out its problems.
Sharma said the vote should be for a local candidate, who knows what the people of Delhi's northeast want. He said that a local nominee would understand the local issues much better and wouldn't allow any of the Delhi Congress leaders to hijack the local politics. Another protester said Kanhaiya Kumar was too much of a celebrity; he wouldn't understand the problems of the people living in these inner hubs of Delhi.
Suggestions were put forth for a few other candidates like Arvinder Singh Lovely and Sandeep Dikshit as the candidates were seen to have a better grasp of local issues and concerns. The central demand of the protesters remained the same – they demanded a candidate genuinely committed to serving the community and not a mere celebrity figure.
When asked about the protest, a senior party leader denied any internal rift, saying Kanhaiya Kumar was hugely popular among the local people, and this would get reflected in the ballot box. He said the party and its leadership had complete confidence in Kanhaiya Kumar and he enjoyed huge support from the local people.
The protest was held as the storm of resignation by Arvinder Singh Lovely as the chief of the Delhi Congress unit, who said the party had allowed him no role in the decision of forming an alliance with AAP. Lovely wrote in his resignation letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge that the AICC had taken the decision against the wishes of the Delhi Congress and if it continued in such a manner, then he wouldn't be part of the Congress at all.
In response to the developments, Kanhaiya Kumar said he was not aware of the situation and would enquire from the party before making further comments.
