In a setback to the BJP, senior party leader and former MP Ashok Tanwar joined the Congress at Rahul Gandhi's rally in Mahendragarh district in Haryana on Thursday, two days before the state goes to polls. As Gandhi was winding up his speech at the rally in Bhawaria, an announcement was made from the stage asking the audience to wait for a few minutes.
Soon after, Tanwar (48), who had joined the BJP in January this year, walked onto the stage and it was announced that "aaj unki ghar wapasi ho gayi ha (today, he has returned to the Congress fold)".
Tanwar, a Dalit leader who was considered close to Gandhi and had left the Congress in 2019 following differences with former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, returned to the party hours before the campaigning for the Oct. 5 Haryana Assembly polls came to an end at 6:00 p.m.
Shortly before joining the Congress, the former Sirsa MP was campaigning for the BJP candidate in Safidon assembly constituency. During the campaigning, the BJP targeted the Congress over its treatment of Tanwar, referring to his differences with Hooda and an incident in which he sustained injuries during a scuffle allegedly between his and the former chief minister's supporters in Delhi.
पूर्व कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष एवं नेता प्रतिपक्ष लोकसभा @RahulGandhi जी की उपस्थिति में महेंद्रगढ़ रैली में @INCIndia परिवार में शामिल हुए। pic.twitter.com/Rn7iOZkbIh
— Ashok Tanwar (@Tanwar_Indian) October 3, 2024
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Tanwar's return to the Congress is likely to come as a boost for the party, which is looking to wrest power from the BJP after a decade.
Tanwar, a former Haryana Congress president, shook hands with Gandhi and greeted Hooda, who welcomed him into the party fold and patted his back.
Senior Congress leader K C Venugopal was also present on stage.
Tanwar had joined the AAP in April 2022. He quit the AAP in January this year, expressing his displeasure over the party joining hands with the Congress for the Lok Sabha elections.
Before joining the AAP, he was with the Trinamool Congress briefly.
After joining the BJP, Tanwar had unsuccessfully contested against Congress leader Kumari Selja, a prominent Dalit face of her party, from Sirsa Lok Sabha constituency in May. The BJP had picked him over its sitting Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal.
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