CHANDIGARH: In a setback to the BJP, its senior leader and former MP Ashok Tanwar re-joined the Congress at a rally of Rahul Gandhi in Mahendragarh district in Haryana on Thursday, two days before the state goes to polls.
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 finish his speech, an announcement was made from the stage asking the audience to wait for a few minutes.
Soon after, Tanwar, who had joined the BJP earlier this year, walked onto the stage and it was announced that "aaj unki ghar vapsi ho gayi ha (today, he has returned to the Congress fold)".
Tanwar, who was considered close to Gandhi and had left the Congress in 2019, following differences with senior party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, joined the party hours before the campaigning for the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls comes to an end at 6 pm.
The Dalit leader'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.
In 2021 Tanwar 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.
(With inputs from PTI)