Tanwar asks Dalits, backward classes to ensure big mandate for Congress in Haryana

New Delhi: Former MP Ashok Tanwar officially returned to the Congress on Friday and urged all sections, especially Dalits and backward classes, in Haryana to ensure a "big mandate" for the party in the assembly polls to send a message to the entire country.

Tanwar had informally joined the Congress at Rahul Gandhi's rally in Mahendragarh district in Haryana on Thursday, dealing a setback for the BJP ahead of the assembly polls.

Hours before joining the Congress, the former Sirsa MP was campaigning for the BJP candidate in Safidon assembly constituency and exhorting voters to bring it back to power for a third time.

He was officially inducted into the party at the AICC headquarters by Congress treasurer Ajay Maken.

Addressing a press conference, Tanwar said, "I began my political career with the Congress. In the last few months I was in the BJP, the environment that I saw, I was hurt over a number of issues, the faith that should be their on Babasahab Ambedkar and the Constitution is not there (in the BJP)." "On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi is working on strengthening Babasahab Ambedkar's Constitution and ensuring that people get their rights, and unity of the country is strengthened," he said.

Tanwar credited the Congress for his political career.

"I request all the Dalits and backward classes of Haryana that in order to make state No. 1 and to ensure people of Haryana get their rights...all sections, I request them to give a big mandate (to the Congress) to send a message to the country," he said.

The Dalit leader on Thursday had described his decision to return to the Congress as the "will of God".

"It's all circumstances, destiny and will of the people. Let bygones be bygones," Tanwar had told PTI on phone.

"I am joining the Congress exactly five years after I left it. That was the will of God then, today also it is the will of God... Sometimes, there is not much in your hands," he added.

At the rally in Bhawaria on Thursday, Tanwar shook hands with Gandhi and greeted Hooda, who welcomed him into the party fold and patted his back.

Congress leaders K C Venugopal, Bajrang Punia, Rao Dan Singh and political scientist Yogendra Yadav were also present on stage.

During the campaigning, the BJP targeted the Congress over its treatment of Tanwar, a former Haryana Congress president, 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.

Tanwar joined the AAP in April 2022. He quit the party in January this year, expressing his displeasure over its decision to join 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.