'The child is dead. Congress is finished': Arvinder Singh Lovely joins BJP

New Delhi: Former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and lashed out at the leadership of his former party, which he said has "died" under them.

A key minister in the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit government in Delhi, Lovely raked up allegations of bribery in ticket distribution for the MCD polls by the Congress and claimed after meeting BJP chief Amit Shah that many senior Congress leaders are feeling "suffocated" as the party is no longer what it used to be.

Lovely, who hails from the Sikh community, joined the saffron party along with Delhi Youth Congress chief Amit Malik.

"The child is dead. Congress is finished," he told reporters, expressing his unhappiness with its leadership, including vice president Rahul Gandhi.

He heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, saying the two have redefined politics.

Lashing out at Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken, he said somebody who lost his election deposit, a reference to Maken's heavy loss in the city's Assembly polls, was foisted on the party.

He also referred to the allegations made by A K Walia, a Congress veteran in the city, that tickets for MCD elections were being sold by party leaders, lamenting that the party leadership did not even look into his complaints.

The BJP believes Lovely's shift to it will boost its prospects in the MCD polls, especially in areas with sizeable Punjabi population.

He said the scams were blamed for the UPA's loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and it was strange that the Congress even in opposition is accused of corruption.