Ex-Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar announces 'surgical strike' on party ahead of Assembly polls, pledges support to JJP

New Delhi: Congress’ former Haryana unit president Ashok Tanwar on Wednesday announced his support to Dushyant Chautala-led Jananayak Janta Party in the Assembly elections to be held next week, a move he termed as a surgical strike on his former party.

Tanwar grabbed headlines earlier this month after he protested outside Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence over alleged irregularities in ticket distribution. Later, he resigned from the party.

Tanwar, who was appointed the Haryana Congress chief in 2014, has been locked in a feud with former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Last month, he was replaced as Congress’s Haryana unit president by Kumari Selja and Hooda was appointed as legislative party leader.

Addressing a press conference with Chautala, Tanwar said he left Congress with pain and now his workers want him to support the JJP.

“My workers want to support JJP so we are doing so, Dushyant Chautala should become chief minister of the state,” he said.

Tanwar said workers were ignored in the Congress because of “some arrogant people” in the party.

“There are some arrogant people in the party whose hubris need to be destroyed,” he said.

Emphasising that now Congress is forced to fight for the third or fourth position in the state Assembly elections to be held on 21 October, Tanwar said, “I have laid down the land mine for enemies and this is the fist surgical strike on them.”

Tanwar announced his resignation on Twitter earlier this month and posted a four-page letter addressed to Gandhi.