Fighting double anti-incumbency in the State, young Dalit MP Ashok Tanwar has been drafted as the new president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) ahead of the lok Sabha and Assembly polls this year.
Tanwar, a former president of the Indian Youth Congress, is close to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and replaces the ineffective Phool Chand Mullana, a camp follower of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the Congress politics of Haryana. The key appointment, two months before the lok Sabha polls signalled Gandhi’s efforts to make the party battle-ready for the polls. As Assembly polls are scheduled later this year, Tanwar would supplement Hooda in the efforts to win back the state for the third time in a row for the Congress.
Tanwar’s appointment come close on the heels of young leaders Sachin Pilot and Arun Yadav being made heads of the party units in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively, giving the youth in the party a chance to show their organisational skills. In Haryana, 28 per cent new young voters were added recently and they would vote in the forthcoming parliamentary elections for the first time. If Tanwar succeeds is sending a right message to the youth, the party could well effectively fight the double anti-incumbency of the Centre as well as the State Government.
His appointment as PCC chief comes virtually as a birthday gift. He will turn 38 on Wednesday. “My husband got his birthday gift from Congress high command two days earlier”, said Avantika, wife of Tanwar.
A member of lok Sabha from Sirsa (SC) seat, Tanwar is a known Rahul Gandhi loyalist. Though his name as PCC chief was doing rounds for some time, it was being opposed by factions within the party. Tanwar’s appointment follows former Union Minister Selja’s nomination to Rajya Sabha which was seen as a setback for Hooda, who wanted state Congress President Phool Chand Mullana or incumbent MP Ram Prakash to take Haryana’s lone Upper House berth. The new PCC President is considered as acceptable to all factions of the Congress and is non-controversial.
Rajya Sabha MP, Birender Singh, however, said it was late in the day to appoint Tanwar. Talking to The Pioneer, he said “It is delayed decision. He has a long way to go as for the last three and half year, there were no activity in the state Congress. He has no time to do anything. Probably within 15 days, the elections would be declared”. Singh, a known detractor of Hooda, said the state unit needs to be overhauled to get results.
Tanwar started his political career as an activist of the NSUI in JNU and later became President of both NSUI and IYC. As soon as news of his elevation came, celebrations broke at his home town. Though he was in Odisha, yet at his residence in HUDA colony in Sirsa, Congress workers, his family members and family friends celebrated his appointment by distributing sweets and lighting firecrackers.