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.