Ashok Tanwar, senior BJP leader, rejoined the Congress at party leader Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Haryana’s Mahendragarh on Thursday.

“Joined the Indian National Congress family at Mahendragarh rally in the presence of Former Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Ji,” Tanwar said after rejoining the grand old party in a post on X.

As Lok Sabha LoP was about to finish his speech, an announcement was made from the stage asking the audience to wait for a few minutes. To everyone’s surprise, Tanwar walked onto the stage, and it was then declared that he had rejoined the congress.

Just an hour before, Tanwar was campaigning for the saffron party candidate ahead of the Haryana Assembly election, which is scheduled for October 5.

Before his departure from the party, Tanwar served as the Haryana Congress chief from 2014 to 2019. In 2021, he joined the Trinamool Congress and then switched to AAP the following year.

However, Tanwar left AAP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls due to his opposition to AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to ally with Congress. After leaving AAP, he joined the BJP and contested in the general election from Sirsa but lost to Congress’s Kumari Selja.

The former Congress chief was addressing an election rally in Mahendragarh with other senior leaders including former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Addressing the rally, Gandhi said: “The fight that is going on is the fight of ideology. There was a big LS election, now there is this Haryana election. On one side, there is a Congress party and on the other, there is BJP and RSS. We say that the country should be run by Constitution, it is for all, and everybody benefits from it. When we think about the country, development, progress, army, bureaucracy, we start from the Constitution. On the other hand, the BJP and the RSS don’t believe in it and want to finish it. They won’t say it in public meetings. They know that there is a deep relation of the country with the Constitution. But whatever they do, they do it to weaken the Constitution.”

Tanwar, an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, started his political journey with Congress’s student wing National Students Union of India. He served as the president of the student organisation and also led the Indian Youth Congress, the youth wing of the Congress, before assuming higher positions in the grand old party.

Former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin failed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Hyderabad Cricket Association.

According to PTI, the 61-year-old was asked to depose before the central agency at its office here on October 3 and get his statement recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The former Congress MP, however, sought more time from the agency. He has been issued a fresh summons for October 8, according to reports.

In November last year, the ED had conducted searches related to alleged financial irregularities in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA).

The ED had then raided the premises of former office bearers of the HCA, including former HCA vice president and Indian cricketer Shivlal Yadav, Congress MLA and ex-HCA president Gaddam Vinod, former HCA secretary Arshad Ayub apart from the office of a company called S S Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and the residential premise of its managing director (MD), Satyanarayana.

The agency is investigating Azharuddin’s actions during his time as the HCA president. The former Indian skipper, who ran for Assembly polls last year, has not yet responded.

The money laundering case is based on three FIRs and charge sheets filed by the Telangana anti-corruption bureau (ACB), alleging misappropriation of HCA funds amounting to Rs 20 crore.

The charge sheets allege serious irregularities in the procurement of DG sets, firefighting systems, and canopies for the Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad. The ED previously stated that despite deadlines, several works were delayed, resulting in increased costs, budget enhancements, and corresponding losses to the HCA.

The office bearers of the HCA, including the then secretary, president, vice-president, and others, allegedly colluded with private parties to secure tenders and works at higher than market rates without proper tender processes. The agency also alleged that advance payments were made to many contractors without any work being done.

The ED’s raids last year led to the seizure of digital devices, incriminating documents, and unaccounted cash of Rs 10.39 lakh.

Azharuddin, a former cricketer, started his political career by winning the Moradabad Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and currently serves as the working president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC).

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he is an expert in telling lies and asked not to fall for BJP’s election promises as it never fulfilled commitments made to voters earlier.

Addressing a poll rally at Badhra in Charkhi Dadri, Kharge hit out at BJP over several issues, including demands for debt waiver and legal guarantee on MSP from farmers, and claimed people have made up their minds to bring the Congress to power in the state.

“Modi ji toh bharosa todne walo ka bhi sardar hai (Modi is the leader of those who break trust.) His numerous lies, promises, you know about them,” he said in the presence of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik.

Referring to Congress’ election promises in Haryana, Kharge said the party has given seven guarantees in its manifesto including Rs 2,000 per month for women and told Hooda, who was standing behind him, “You will have to keep my honour”.

“It is Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri’s birth anniversary today. Mahatma Gandhi taught us truth and non-violence. I don’t want to say this – how much truth and how much lies those in power speak,” he said.

The Congress chief said: “Under the Congress government, Haryana was number one in the country in per capita income, per capita investment, law and order, employment generation and sportspersons. But BJP made it number one in unemployment and inflation. The cost of farmers increased manifold but their income did not increase. In 10 years, BJP benefited the capitalists but exploited the farmers, small businessmen, labourers and youth.”

The grand old party has not named its chief ministerial candidate, but Hooda is a frontrunner for the post. The state will go for polls on Saturday.

Invoking Lal Bahadur Shastri’s “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” slogan, he said the BJP doesn’t “know about jawans or kisans”.

“They only know the RSS’ agenda. No one is a farmer in the RSS or BJP. This is why they don’t understand the pain of the farmers. They help people like Adani-Ambani and not farmers. They don’t give MSP guarantee, but Modi waives Rs 16 lakh crore debt of the rich,” he said and also criticised the Agnipath military recruitment scheme.