Reacting to the resignation of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Arvinder Singh Lovely from his post, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Sunday said Lovely has experienced “personal pain” over the last two to three months due to developments in the grand old party.

Lovely’s resignation from his post comes amid the backdrop of the ongoing seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, with Delhi scheduled to go to polls on 25 May.

In a four-page letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely expressed anguish over the functioning of the Congress.

Several Congress leaders, including Sandeep Dikshit and Subhash Chopra, later met Arvinder Singh Lovely at his residence in the national capital.

Speaking to reporters, Sandeep Dikshit said, “I haven’t read the letter. Being the Delhi Congress president and a Congress worker, he (Arvinder Singh Lovely) seems to have experienced personal anguish.”

“His (Lovely’s) pain is that we are struggling to restore our old reputation in Delhi. Becoming the president of Delhi Congress is like wearing a crown of thorns,” Dikshit said, emphasising the challenging responsibilities that come with the leadership within the party.

“Despite this, he worked hard in the last 6-8 months to strengthen the party, which is evident by the INDI alliance rallies,” Dikshit said.

Emphasising the importance of unity and consensus within the Congress, he said, “When we secure two or three seats, it becomes evident that allocating seats with the consent of all the members of the Congress will lead to smoother operations in the future.”

Talking to a news agency, Subhash Chopra said Lovely has resigned only from the post and not from the party.

“When I asked him why he resigned from the post of the Delhi Congress chief, he said he has conveyed all the reasons to the party president. It is an internal matter of our party, and we intend to resolve it through discussions. He emphasised that he has only resigned from the post, not from the party,” Chopra said.

In his resignation letter to Kharge, Lovely said that despite the Aam Aadmi Party accusing the Congress of corruption, the party allied with it under the INDIA bloc.

“The Delhi Congress unit was against an alliance with a party which was solely formed on the basis of levelling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress party. Despite that, the party decided to ally with the AAP in Delhi,” Arvinder Singh Lovely wrote in his resignation letter.

Lovely said that since he cannot protect the interests of the party workers, he sees no reason to continue in the said post.