CHANDIGARH: In a big blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party, just two days ahead of the polling for the Haryana assembly elections, senior BJP leader and former Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar who had earlier remained Member of Parliament from Sirsa rejoined the Congress party.
He returned to Congress in the presence of leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda during an election rally in Mahendergarh on Thursday.
As Rahul Gandhi was about to finished his speech, an announcement was made from the stage asking the audience to wait for a few minutes and then suddenly to everyone’s surprise Tanwar walked onto the stage and then it was declared that he was rejoined the congress.
His return to the grand old party fold is expected to strengthen the party's position in the state just ahead of the upcoming assembly elections as today is the last day of campaign and polling is scheduled on October 5.
In 2019 Tanwar resigned from the Congress as she was considered close to Rahul Gnadhi as he had differences with Bhupinder Singh Hooda and in 2021 joined the Trinamool Congress then in 2022 he shifted to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and earlier this year, he joined with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of then Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and had lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections he won from Sirsa parliamentary seat defeating Sita Ram of INLD but in 2014 elections be lost to Charanjeet Singh Rori of INLD and again in 2019 he lost to Sunita Duggal of BJP.
While in the recent parliamentary polls he contested from Sirsa on BJP ticket but lost to Kumari Selja of Congress.