Veteran politician and former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Tariq Anwar joined Indian National Congress (INC) on Saturday.
Anwar met Congress president Rahul Gandhi after joining the party. He was also accompanied by former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and other party leaders.
Anwar, a member of 16th Lok Sabha from Katihar, Bihar, had resigned from NCP on September 28 in protest against the party leadership's alleged support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal controversy.
Following his resignation from NCP, Anwar told ANI that he decided to resign from the party as the statement of party president Sharad Pawar on Rafale deal created a 'misunderstanding' among the people regarding the Opposition.
However soon after the incident, Lok Sabha member and Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule, in an exclusive interview to ANI, had said that her father was misquoted by Marathi media outlets and rubbished the subsequent perception that saw the NCP and Sharad Pawar drift away from the opposition created against the BJP.
A few days later NCP president Sharad Pawar also clarified on his alleged remark and said that he is 'not supporting the Prime Minister and would never do that'.
More From This Section
Anwar had initially quit Congress in 1999 along with Pawar and former Speaker PA Sangma, who passed away in 2016, over Sonia Gandhi's appointment as the party president despite her foreign origin. Anwar joined politics as a student leader and remained with the Congress until NCP was formed. He is a well-known politician from Bihar.
Anwar was close to Sanjay Gandhi and Sitaram Kesri. He was also the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president in the 1980s. He is considered as the only Muslim leader with substance after Ghulam Nabi Azad to have been given the responsibility of IYC chief.