NEW DELHI, Oct 5:
In a major setback to the Congress ahead of the October 21 assembly election, former Haryana party president Ashok Tanwar, who has been disgruntled on being sidelined in the process of screening of candidates on Saturday resigned from the primary membership of the party.
“After long deliberations with party workers and for reasons well known to all Congressman and public, I hereby resign from the primary membership of the Congress,” Mr Tanwar announced on Twitter.
In his four page resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Mr Tanwar said that “the Indian National Congress is going through an existential crisis, not because of its political opponents, but because of serious internal contradictions.”
The former party chief had on Thursday resigned from party’s election committees alleging irregularities in the ticket distribution.
This was following protest by Mr Tanwar and his supporters in front of Ms Gandhi’s residence over the ticket distribution in the assembly election.
He had also alleged that the party has become ‘Hooda Congress’ in Haryana and tickets were being ‘sold’. Reiterating the allegation in the resignation letter, Tanwar said, “I waited for one complete month expecting justice and fairness in ticket distribution. The true recognition was deserved by the people who worked hard for more than five years sacrificing their personal and family lives, time and money with complete dedication. They deserved an opportunity to contest on a Congress ticket, but unfortunately personal allegiances and fixing with Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ghulam Nabi Azad (AICC in-charge of Haryana) and others have been the top criteria for selection of candidates in most cases.”
Mr Tanwar’s decision came a day after his name was included in the party list of 40 star campaigners for the assembly polls in Haryana. “Hard working Congressmen who rise from the grassroots and belong to non-political and humble family backgrounds are not valued”, Mr Tanwar said in his resignation letter.
He alleged that “money, blackmail and pressure tactics seems to work at the end”.
“Now the Congress is the anti-thesis of Democracy, plagued by feudal attitudes and medieval conspiracies. In this context I am not the only victim of these prejudices that are aimed at defending dynastic politics, which is so deep rooted and omnipresent in Congress party”, the Dalit leader said. Congress had recently removed Mr Tanwar from the PCC president post and appointed senior leader Kumari Selja, after infighting between his group and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda came out in open.
Mr Hooda was also appointed as CLP leader and chief of the election management committee. Mr Tanwar, a former NSUI and Youth Congress president, was appointed as Haryana PCC Chief by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in 2014. (UNI)
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