Chandigarh :
Admitting for the first time that political differences had turned into personal ones, Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar extended an olive branch to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, saying he was willing to “forget and forgive” in the interests of the party.

In a candid admission, Tanwar said initially the differences arose when Hooda refused to acknowledge him as the party president, but these got murky after the Ram Lila ground and Bhairon Mandir incidents in which Tanwar was beaten up by Hooda’s supporters.

Tanwar said, “Time is a great healer. I expect all party leaders to remain harmonious and since we are headed towards state and parliamentary elections, I am willing to move on in the interests of the party.” He said the party leadership did try to broker peace between the two leaders, but it failed mainly because Hooda thought he was larger than the party and ignored the party president, but I am willing to let go the bygones.

At the same time when contacted Hooda about the truce offer, the former Chief Minister said, “I have no political or personal differences with any of my party colleagues. These may be at Tanwars end only. In fact, I don’t know what he is talking about. Everyone should work to strengthen the Congress party.”

Tanwar said his party was ready to face the elections and was ready for it. The sudden spurt in activity of the Chief Minister in the past few days indicated that the BJP was looking at holding the state Assembly and parliamentary elections sometime later this year. “But we are ready and you will see the Congress winning all 10 parliamentary and at least 80 Assembly segment,” he claimed.

Commenting on the non-synchronised activity of various Congress stalwarts, the party president said he always supported any action that would strengthen the party for the next election. After initial hesitation, he admitted that Hooda did not inform him about his “Rath Yatra” plans, quickly adding that if he had been kept in the loop, he would have only assisted in making the event an even bigger success since it was a move to strengthen the party rather than projecting himself as the next Chief Minister.
Lashing out at the BJP as the “most corrupt government”, making money, on one pretext or the other, Tanwar said the BJP made offices in 17 districts of Haryana after announcing demonetisation. Once the Congress comes to power, an inquiry will be held into the source of funding and all properties found to be brought from unexplainable wealth would be reverted to the government. He supported Hooda on the issue of retaining all 17 sitting Congress legislators in the House of 90 by adding that “we will go by the winning ability of the candidates”.

Referring to the tiff between his supporters and that of Hooda, Tanwar said the party high command had formed a committee that had given a report. But the FIR lodged for the clash between his supporters and that of Hooda had not been withdrawn as it was state versus the accused and he did not have much role in doing so.