Gurugram: The Aam Aadmi Celebration’s face in Haryana, Ashok Tanwar, an ex-member of Rahul Gandhi’s staff who headed the Congress state unit for over 5 years, is in talks with the Bharatiya Janata Celebration and is about to hitch it shortly, ThePrint has learnt.
A supply near Tanwar confirmed that the previous Sirsa MP was on his method to the BJP.
The discuss of the Dalit chief leaving the AAP gained traction after he met Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar earlier this week at a lodge in Delhi.
On Wednesday, Khattar was within the nationwide capital to fulfill President Droupadi Murmu to ask her because the chief visitor for the inauguration of the Surajkund Mela. The annual truthful showcasing regional and worldwide crafts and traditions is scheduled to be held from 2 February to 19 February.
BJP state spokesperson Sanjay Sharma confirmed that Tanwar met the Haryana CM and his plans to hitch the BJP has been mentioned, however he added that the ultimate name is to be taken by Khattar.
Tanwar would be the second massive chief of the AAP in Haryana to stop the celebration after former minister and four-time MLA Nirmal Singh bid adieu to the celebration alongside together with his daughter Chitra Sarwara final week. The daddy-daughter duo returned to the Congress in an election yr.
Earlier, AAP state president Sushil Gupta advised a press convention in Chandigarh that if Tanwar joins the BJP, it’s his personal choice. The celebration has at all times given him the respect he deserved as a senior chief, the previous Rajya Sabha member advised the press briefing Saturday.
Contacted by The Print on his cellphone, Gupta stated that he had learnt from the media studies that Tanwar plans to hitch the BJP although the AAP state marketing campaign committee chairman has not talked to him about this.
Requested for a way lengthy Tanwar has not been in contact with him, Gupta stated the AAP Marketing campaign Committee chairman has not been attending celebration conferences or the celebration programmes for the previous few days.
Jagbir Jognakhera, a Tanwar loyalist and AAP’s Kurukshetra district president who stop the celebration on 9 January, countered Gupta’s claims that the celebration revered Tanwar.
“When [AAP Rajya Sabha MP] Sandeep Pathak visited Chandigarh on 29 December, Tanwar reached with hundreds of his supporters. But he was not given time to address people. Nor did his picture figure in the party’s press releases. This was happening every day. How can a political leader who wants to contest an election hope to get people’s support when his party keeps ignoring him?” Jognakhera requested.
He stated that on 9 January, Pathak visited Kurukshetra for a gathering. “I made all the arrangements for the event being the district head of the party. I sought an appointment with him for just two minutes, it was declined because the party leaders knew I would talk about Tanwar who had stopped attending the party’s events after 30 December. When Pathak left, I invited the media to my office and announced my resignation,” Jognakhera advised The Print.
On Saturday, Khattar parried a query on his assembly with Tanwar by the media at Karnal. He advised media individuals that his obligations as CM are of such a nature that he retains assembly folks each day. “These people include those from my party and also political leaders, MLAs, MPs, ex-MLAs and ex-MPs from other parties,” he added.
Additionally Learn: Suspensions, compelled depart, wage minimize. Why Khattar’s cracking whip on officers forward of polls
Rise & exit from Congress
Born to a military man father and a homemaker mom in Chimni village of Jhajjar district on 12 February 1976, Tanwar had his first brush with politics on the Jawaharlal Nehru College the place he joined the Centre for Historic Research for his Grasp’s diploma and PhD in Indian medieval historical past.
Tanwar turned secretary of the Nationwide College students’ Union of India (NSUI), the coed wing of the Congress, in 1999 and its president in 2003.
It was throughout his time period because the NSUI secretary that he met his spouse and the granddaughter of former president Shankar Dayal Sharma, Avantika Maken. The couple married in 2005, the yr he was appointed the president of the Indian Youth Congress.
“We were both secretaries of the NSUI while Meenakshi Natrajan was its president,” Avantika as soon as advised The Print about her first assembly with Tanwar. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has performed a key position in a number of of her key selections, together with her marriage, she had stated.
As soon as thought of as a member of Rahul Gandhi’s staff, Tanwar met together with his first main electoral success in 2009 when he was fielded from Sirsa parliamentary constituency. Although he contested this seat in 2014 and 2019, he misplaced on each events.
Months earlier than the 2014 parliamentary polls, the Congress had appointed Tanwar the state unit chief in February.Throughout the October 2014 meeting polls, Tanwar’s relations with the then CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda soured on account of disagreement over the distribution of seats.
In October 2016, Tanwar was injured in an assault by a bit of celebration staff when Congress supporters had gathered in New Delhi to welcome the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi on his return from his Kisan Yatra.
When Tanwar was admitted to a Delhi hospital, Khattar visited him to inquire about his well-being. After his discharge from the hospital, Tanwar has alleged that celebration staff owing allegiance to Hooda had attacked him.
His relations with Hooda, the celebration’s strongman in Haryana, was by no means restored after the episode. Slightly over a month earlier than the 2019 meeting polls in Haryana, the Congress changed Tanwar with Kumari Selja because the Pradesh Congress Committee chief in September.
A month later, Tanwar resigned from the Congress towards the denial of tickets to his supporters and supported Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Celebration within the 2019 Haryana polls. One in every of his staunch supporters, Devender Babli (now a Haryana minister) contested on a JJP ticket and gained from Tohana.
The Dalit chief went on to launch his personal outfit Apna Bharat Morcha earlier than becoming a member of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in November 2021 after which the AAP in April 2022.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Additionally Learn: Dushyant performs down discuss of BJP-JJP rift after Nadda says BJP prepping to win all Haryana LS seats