Dr Ashok Tanwar MP Sirsa is now HPCC President; replaces Phool Chand Mullana

Dr Ashok Tanwar MP Sirsa is now HPCC President; replaces Phool Chand Mullana.

Sirsa Congress workers get rejuvenation.

SIRSA NEWS ( www.SirsaNews.com )

10 February, 2014

Pictures: Amit Soni

The Congress on Monday appointed young sitting Lok Sabha MP from Sirsa Ashok Tanwar as president of its Haryana unit.

Grass-root level Congress workers and junior leaders who seemed to be tired after the recent ‘Jai Sirsa Lok Sabha Yatra’ which only got lukewarm to moderate response due to factionalism in Congress, now feel rejuvenated.

Dr Ashok Tanwar is married to Avantika Makan Tanwar.

Tanwar (38) replaces 73-year-old Phool Chand Mullana, a Dalit leader, who had been the state Congress chief since 2007.

Mullana continued to be the working president despite losing the 2009 Assembly elections after the Congress high command declined to accept his resignation. The appointment of a full time Haryana Congress chief has been pending since then.

Tanwar, a former president of the Indian Youth Congress (from 2005 to 2010), now faces the uphill task of uniting the faction-ridden Haryana Congress ahead of Lok Sabha and assembly polls later this year and constituting the long-defunct Pradesh Congress committee in the state.

Tanwar’s elevation comes close on the heels of Rahul’s meeting with Haryana Congress leaders on January 19 where he told them that all factions would have to be taken along. “The message to state leaders is clear – everyone will have to stand united and everyone will have to be taken along,” a senior Congress leader said today. Tanwar, being Rahul’s appointee, is expected to be acceptable to both factions in Haryana though he will face the challenge of being an outsider. Mainly confined to national politics, Tanwar won LS elections for the first time from Sirsa in 2009.

This major organisation change in Haryana is part of the recent overhauling of the state unit which started when the team comprising Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed and Congress secretary Asha Kumari assumed charge of the state. The duo played a role in reporting ground feedback to the Congress president.