In a major blow to the BJP ahead of the Haryana assembly elections, Ashok Tanwar on Thursday returned to the Congress in the presence of Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. He had joined the saffron party earlier this year in the presence of then Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and had lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
Tanwar quit the Congress in 2019 and joined the AAP in 2022. In between, the former Lok Sabha MP had floated his party and even joined the Trinamool Congress for a brief period. He resigned from the AAP, protesting its alliance with the Congress for the Lok Sabha elections.
Tanwar has served as Haryana Congress chief. His entry into the Congress comes just two days before the polling in Haryana. Polling in Haryana is scheduled for October 5 (Saturday).
In 2009, Tanwar won the Lok Sabha election from Sirsa as a Congress candidate with a margin of 354,999 votes. However, he lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election to Charanjeet Singh Rori of the Indian National Lok Dal.