New Delhi [India], October 3 : In a setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party days before the Haryana Assembly polls, former Lok Sabha MP Ashok Tanwar joined the Congress on Thursday.
Tanwar, who joined the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections 2024, joined the Congress in the presence of Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi at Mahendargarh.
Ashok Tanwar was the Congress MP from Sirsa after he won in the 2009 general elections. He was appointed as Haryana Congress Chief from 2014 to 2019, when he left the party. In 2021, he joined the Trinamool Congress and switched to the Aam Aadmi Party in 2022.
He joined the BJP ahead of the 2024 general elections and contested from Sirsa but lost to Congress' Kumari Selja from the seat.
In a post on X, Congress welcomed Tanwar and said, "Congress has constantly raised its voice for the rights of the oppressed and the deprived and has fought with full honesty to protect the Constitution. Impressed by our struggle and dedication, today senior BJP leader, former MP, member of BJP's campaign committee in Haryana and star campaigner Ashok Tanwar joined the Congress."
"Your joining will strengthen the fight for the rights of Dalits. Welcome back to the Congress family, best wishes for the future," the Congress added.
Notably, the return of Ashok Tanwar coincides on the last day of campaigning of the Haryana assembly polls.
Meanwhile, addressing a public rally in Nuh, Congress leader and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi on Thursday blamed BJP government of destroying the Constitution of India. In the rally, he also said that the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' objective was to spread love and unity and take out 'Nafrat ka bazaar'.
"...We took out a yatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and wherever BJP opened 'nafrat ka bazaar' we opened 'Mohabbat ki dukaan'. We talk about love and unity; they spread hate and try to break the country...BJP and RSS are destroying the constitution...Congress is fighting an ideological war. On one side there is an ideology of destroying the Constitution; on the other side there is an ideology of the Constitution," he said.
Haryana will go to the polls on October 5 to elect its 90-member state legislative assembly, with counting set to take place on October 8.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, securing 40 seats, while Congress won 30 seats.