TARIQ ANWAR BACK IN CONG AFTER 19 YEARS

NEW DELHI: Over 19 years after being expelled from the Congress for opposing Sonia Gandhi’s projection as the party’s PM candidate in 1999 on the ground of her foreign origin, Tariq Anwar was taken back into the grand old party on Saturday. Congress president Rahul Gandhi welcomed Anwar back into the party.

Over 19 years after being expelled from the Congress for opposing Sonia Gandhi’s projection as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 1999 ostensibly on the ground of her foreign origin, Tariq Anwar was taken back into the grand old party on Saturday.

Congress president and Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul Gandhi welcomed Anwar, a five-time Lok Sabha member and two-term Rajya Sabha MP, back into the party fold. The Congress also got a shot in the arm in Telangana when two ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders — former legislator T Narsa Reddy and member of legislative council (MLC) S Ramulu Naik — joined the party on Saturday. TRS Rajya Sabha member D Srinivas too met Gandhi and expressed his willingness to join the Congress.

Nearly a month ago on September 28, Anwar had resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over his party chief Sharad Pawar’s reported clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal.

Pawar, however, later denied the remarks and reiterated his demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the fighter jet deal. HTC