As former Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar, 46, joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) In the presence of its supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday, his supporters really feel that this transfer could mark a “turning point” in his political profession.
Tanwar, who belongs to the Dalit neighborhood, was as soon as thought of to be a rising star amongst younger Congress leaders. He was near prime Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. After heading the Congress’s college students wing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) for 2 years from 2003, he turned the Indian Youth Congress (IYC)’s president for a five-year interval in 2005 on the age of 29.
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Born in Chimni village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, Tanwar accomplished his Master’s in History after which his PhD. He joined pupil politics when he was finding out within the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, he was fielded by the Congress from the Sirsa reserved constituency that he received with an enormous margin.
In 2014, the Congress management appointed Tanwar because the president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC). His principal detractor inside the state Congress was heavyweight chief and ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, however even he couldn’t get Tanwar faraway from his put up because of the latter’s proximity with Rahul.
However, barely a few months forward of the October 2019 Assembly polls, the Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, in a bid to avert a cut up within the state unit, changed Tanwar with ex-Union minister Kumari Selja, one other Dalit chief, because the HPCC chief. She additionally chosen Hooda because the chief of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in addition to the chairman of the celebration’s State Election Committee.
An upset Tanwar alongside together with his supporters had then staged a protest in entrance of Sonia Gandhi’s New Delhi residence, however the overwhelming help he had acquired from the Gandhi household for years. Tanwar’s spouse Avantika Maken Tanwar had been near the Gandhi household ever since her dad and mom Geetanjali and Lalit Maken have been gunned down by extremists in 1985, when she was six years outdated.
However, the Tanwar camp felt that his removing from the state Congress chief’s put up simply forward of the Assembly polls was “humiliating leaving no scope for him to continue in the party”. Later, barely a fortnight earlier than the polls, Tanwar resigned from the grand outdated celebration.
His exit dented the Congress’s prospects within the polls because the celebration’s opponents projected it as “an injustice to an emerging young Dalit politician”.
It was a setback for Tanwar too, who discovered himself relegated to the margins of Haryana politics after having been on its heart stage for a number of years.
But Tanwar carried on together with his makes an attempt to maintain himself related. He prolonged help to some candidates of Dushyant Chautala’s Jananayak Janata Party (JJP) within the 2019 polls, which boosted their prospects, particularly in Tohana seat in Fatehabad district.
In February 2021, Tanwar shaped his socio-political outfit Apna Bharat Morcha (ABM). “The front is a value-driven initiative, which will work with a three-pillared approach of dialogue, debate and discussion to add not only verve to Indian ethos of unity in diversity but will also lay the foundation for truly making our country the land of hope and fulfillment,” he had then mentioned.
His supporters nevertheless needed Tanwar to hitch a mainstream celebration. In November 2021, he joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) within the presence of TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee. His innings with the TMC nevertheless remained a non-starter.
The AAP’s beautiful sweep within the current Assembly elections in neighboring Punjab is now additionally fueling the celebration’s bid to unfold its wings in Haryana, which is Kejriwal’s native state.
Currently, the AAP doesn’t have even its state unit in Haryana. But it has now abruptly elevated its actions within the state. Looking for its face and management in Haryana, the celebration could make the most of Tanwar’s inclusion in its ranks there. Besides his comparatively younger age and lengthy political expertise, Tanwar’s identification as a Dalit chief could come in useful for the AAP within the state which accounts for 20 per cent Dalit inhabitants. Given that the subsequent Assembly election is almost two-and-a-half years away, they’d have the time to construct the celebration group and attain out to the folks within the state.
Tanwar had earlier instructed The Indian Express that he was looking for “alternative politics”. “I’m certain that Haryana will give management not solely to the state however all the nation within the coming days. There is only a want to shine such leaders. There is a necessity for a 3rd various in Haryana,” he had mentioned.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
