New Delhi: Congress today appointed Arvinder Singh Lovely and Bhupesh Baghel as new PCC chiefs of Delhi and Chhattisgarh respectively signalling the party's intent to bring sweeping changes in state units after its debacle in recent assembly elections.
Former minister and sitting MLA Lovely replaces J P Agarwal, who resigned taking “moral responsibility” for the party's worst-ever defeat in the recent Delhi Assembly election.
Lovely, 46, has been active in politics since 1987 and is known to be close to senior Congress leader Ajay Maken. He was elected as General Secretary, Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress in 1990. He was made a Minister in the Shiela Dikshit Cabinet in 2003 and handled a number of key portfolios like Transport, Education and Revenue.
Agarawal had resigned soon after Dikshit had blamed the state unit of the party for not extending the required support to her in the election campaign.
A former minister in the state, Baghel, who was programme coordinator of the party under PCC chief and Union Minister Charan Das Mahant, replaced him within a fortnight of the assembly election results that saw the Congress losing even in Chhattisgarh where it had pinned high hopes.
