New Delhi, Days after announcing his resignation from Congress, party’s former Haryana president Ashok Tanwar on Wednesday declared support to Dushyant Choutala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in the state assembly polls.

Addressing a press conference along with Dushyant Chautala, Mr Tanwar, who recently resigned from the Congress over being sidelines in the process of candidate selection from the state assembly polls, said,’I resigned from Congress with pain and now my workers want to support Dushyant. So I am announcing the decision.’

Haryana will go to polls on October 21 and the results will be announced on October 24. The former PCC president said that he will also campaign against Congress in the Haryana assembly polls and added that the grand old party will fight for third or fourth place from now on.

Mr Tanwar, however, maintained that he will not join JJP, but will only give support to them, “so they can form the government”. Responding to a question on whether his resignation has been accepted by the Congress high command, the Haryana leader said, that he is expecting that it will be accepted today.

Thanking Mr Tanwar for the support, Mr Chautala said,’ I appreciate the decision of Mr Tanwar to support us. It is difficult to take such a decision. JJP is giving a big challenge to BJP in Haryana”. In a major setback to the Congress ahead of the assembly polls, Mr Tanwar had resigned from party, alleging irregularities in ticket distribution.

He, along with supporters had protested outside Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s residence and had alleged that the party in Haryana had become ‘Hooda Congress’. Earlier, the Congress had appointed Kumari Selja as PCC chief and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as CLP leader.