NEW DELHI: Former Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the BJP on Saturday along with a few other leaders, including former city government minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and former MLAs Neeraj Basoya and Naseeb Singh.

All the former Congress leaders slammed the opposition party's alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls as they joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and party general secretary Vinod Tawde.

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 with a big majority in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

Lovely had recently quit as the Delhi Congress president protesting the party's alliance with the AAP.

It is believed that he and some other leaders were also upset with their party's choice of candidates, including Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj, in the national capital for the elections.

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.