Ex-minister Tariq Anwar returns to Congress

PATNA: Former Union minister and Katihar MP Tariq Anwar on Saturday returned to Congress 19 years after he had quit the party over the ‘foreign origin’ issue of Sonia Gandhi and formed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with Sharad Pawar and P A Sangma in 1999.
On September 28, Tariq relinquished the Katihar parliamentary seat and his NCP membership after party president Pawar “defended” PM Narendra Modi on the Rafale fighter jet deal controversy.Pawar, later, explained that he had been misquoted by the media on the PM issue.
On Saturday, Tariq first met Congress president Rahul Gandhi at his Delhi residence and later joined the party in the presence of its Bihar chief Madan Mohan Jha. The Congress (INC) tweeted: “Welcome Tariq Anwar into the family”.
Tariq, who had headed Youth Congress under former PM Rajiv Gandhi, won the Katihar Lok Sabha seat in 1980, 1984, 1996, 1998 and 2014. He was also a Rajya Sabha member on the NCP ticket from Maharashtra.
Bihar Congress is cobbling up the support of the upper caste, Muslim and dalit groups and Tariq’s return will strengthen its bargaining position for the Lok Sabha seats with RJD, observers feel. It also has the potential to queer the pitch for JD(U) that is trying hard to carve its niche in Purnia, Katihar, Araria and Kishanganj. Incidentally, recently, NDA lead partner BJP lost the Araria parliamentary seat to RJD and later JD(U) also lost the Jokihat assembly byelection to the RJD nominee.
The immediate impact, however, was felt by the state NCP. On Friday, Pawar appointed former minister Nawal Kishore Shahi as the party’s state president. While the existing state executive committee and all its cells have been dissolved, Shahi has been asked to constitute the new committee by Diwali, which is on November 7.