Will Ashok Tanwar's dramatic 'ghar wapsi' to Congress affect Haryana polls?

A day after he made a shock appearance at an election rally addressed by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in Haryana just hours after having campaigned for the BJP for the October 5 assembly polls, Ashok Tanwar today formally returned to the Congress.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters in the national capital, where he was formally welcomed back into the party by AICC treasurer Ajay Maken, Tanwar said he was back home.

Tanwar had quit the Congress in 2019, and had joined the BJP earlier this year. Since leaving the Congress, he joined the Trinamool Congress in 2021 and later the Aam Aadmi Party before switching to the BJP.

ALSO READ: Is the lotus wilting in Haryana?

The return of Tanwar to the Congress fold ahead of polling in Haryana is significant owing to his dalit background. The Congress is hoping to consolidate its support among the dalit voters who are believed to have stood behind the party in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP, aware of this, has consistently attacked the Congress during the campaign in Haryana for allegedly being insensitive to the issues of the dalits and also spoken about the sidelining of Selja, who is a dalit, in the party’s scheme of things in the state.

ALSO READ: The importance of being Kumari Selja

When asked in the press briefing whether he had really come back to the Congress for good, Tanwar replied with a Hindi idiom: “Subah ka bhula shaam ko waapas aa jaye, toh use bhula nahi kehte” (If someone has rectified his or her mistake, that person should be forgiven).

He also said the return to the Congress was a homecoming for him. “You realise the importance of home only after leaving it.”

ALSO READ: 'Haryana has become the least safe state under BJP': Ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda

In an apparent reference to his stint in different parties since he left the Congress, Tanwar said: “I now have a 360-degree understanding of the political system. I have understood it really well and hence I have decided to stand by Rahul ji and will fight to protect the Constitution.”

The 48-year-old Tanwar began his political career as the president of the National Students Union of India and later the Youth Congress. He was among the candidates handpicked by Rahul Gandhi who had won in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. A dalit, Tanwar had won from Sirsa, a reserved seat in Haryana.

ALSO READ: Why was Haryana Congress opposed to alliance with AAP?

Known to be close to Rahul Gandhi, he was appointed president of the Haryana Congress in 2014. He held the post till 2019 when, in the face of staunch resistance to his leadership from former chief minister and prominent Jat leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, he was replaced by Kumari Selja. He had then quit the Congress in the run up to the assembly elections in Haryana.

ALSO READ: Haryana elections: Decoding Congress’s seven poll guarantees

Tanwar’s return to the Congress could not have been more dramatic. He had been on the campaign trail for the BJP this election season. In fact, he had campaigned for the BJP in the first half of the day yesterday before he made a stunning appearance at Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Mahendragarh in the afternoon.

It is learnt that Maken and Tanwar’s wife Avantika, who are cousins, and Rahul Gandhi, had a role to play in his return to the Congress.

Tanwar had contested the Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket from Sirsa where he was defeated hands down by Congress’s Selja. Tanwar says the defeat was that of the BJP and the saffron party’s policies and it had little to do with his candidature.