Congress leader Kirti Azad to join Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress party today

New Delhi: Congress leader Kirti Azad will join the Trinamool Congress in Delhi on Tuesday, sources in the Mamata Banerjee-led party said. Ashok Tanwar, who quit the Congress in October 2019 and launched his own party, and former JD(U) general secretary Pavan Varma will also join the TMC, they said. Banerjee, who is in Delhi, always meets Congress president Sonia Gandhi during her visits. However, the TMC sources indicated that the West Bengal chief minister may give it a miss this time. A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad, Azad was suspended from the BJP for openly targeting the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association in December 2015. He joined Congress in 2018. Azad was elected to the Lok Sabha thrice from Darbhanga in Bihar. He had contested the 2014 general elections on a BJP ticket. Ashok Tanwar, who was once considered close to senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, was an MP from Sirsa during 2009-2014 and also the president of the party’s Haryana unit. He quit the Congress days before the Haryana Assembly elections in October 2019. He launched his own party, Apna Bharat Morcha, in February this year. Pavan Varma, a former advisor to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was expelled from the ruling JD(U) in 2020. He was an MP until July 2016. He was also the national general secretary and spokesperson of the JD(U).