Tanwar announces ‘cycle yatra’ from May 17

Days after his arch-rival former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced to launch second phase of ‘Jan Kranti Yatra’ in the state, Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar on Thursday announced to launch the next phase of his “cycle yatra” from May 17. 

Tanwar also announced that the party will hold “dalit maha sammelan” in Karnal on May 27 under ‘Save the Constitution’ campaign of the Congress. 

Accusing the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in Haryana of neglecting the dalit community, Tanwar, while talking to the mediapersons here said that the cases of atrocities against dalits is on the rise in the state. 

Referring to the cases of atrocities against dalits in April, the state Congress chief said that there are cases where dalits were not allowed to play DJ at wedding function and they were beaten by people of upper caste community. But, the BJP led State Government has failed to take any action to curb such incidents, he alleged. 

Tanwar also termed as “drama” the BJP’s ‘Gram Swaraj Abhiyan’ under which the BJP ministers and legislators have been asked to spend at least a night in a predominantly dalit village and have a dinner at a dalit household. 

As a part of Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal had also recently visited  village Salaru in Karnal and had dinner at a dalit household. 

Tanwar also attacked the BJP led Central Government for alleged dilution of SC/ST Act under their rule.

Talking about his “cycle yatra”, Tanwar said that the second phase of “cycle yatra” will begin on May 17 in Sirsa. The cycle yatra will be held from May 17 to 21 in Sirsa, he added. 

The state Congress chief had launched the first phase of his ‘Haryana Bachao, Parivartan Lao’ cycle yatra on March 5 from Kalka to cover all   90 assembly constituencies of Haryana ahead of 2019 polls.

In the faction-ridden Haryana Congress, two-time former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a known detractor of Ashok Tanwar had two days back announced to launch the second phase of his “Jan Kranti Yatra” on June 3 from Panipat.

When asked about the demand of his ouster from the state leadership by Hooda faction and possibility of changes in state party, Ashok Tanwar, while denying such reports, said that I have been announcing all programmes of Haryana Congress as state party chief and there is no truth in reports of change in state leadership. 

Notably, the Hooda faction has been making all out efforts to remove Tanwar from the post of HPCC president. State MLAs close to Hooda, had also met Congress chief Rahul Gandhi recently to demand change in the state leadership.

Meanwhile, Ashok Tanwar also announced to hold a “Samman Sammelan” at Jind on May 13 to honour all those, who had made efforts to make Rahul Gandhi’s recently held “Jan Aakrosh rally” in Delhi a success.