Priority is to strengthen party, says new Haryana Cong chief

Newly-appointed Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Ashok Tanwar today said his priority would be to further strengthen the party ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
"My immediate priority is to work to further strengthen the party. Our government (in Haryana) has rolled out several schemes for benefit of the poor and is doing pretty well... I thank Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi for reposing trust in me," Tanwar told PTI over phone.
The Sirsa MP, who was today appointed as the party's state unit chief, said his immediate task would be to ensure that Congress did well in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

"We are also confident of scoring a hat-trick in the assembly polls (due in Sep-Oct this year)," he said.
Asked how he intends to tackle factionalism within the party, Tanwar, who will turn 38 on Wednesday, said "little differences" might be there but those would be sorted out by taking senior leaders into confidence.
"It is collective decisions and not individual who gives strength to the party. I consider that all senior leaders should be involved in decision making," he said.

Asked whether he would contest from Sirsa again, he said that was for the party high command to decide.

"I am just a small worker of my party," said Tanwar, a known Rahul Gandhi loyalist. Tanwar succeeds Phool Chand Mullana, also a Dalit and a close associate of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Meanwhile, speaking on Tanwar's new role, senior Congress leader Birender Singh said the young leader "has very little time at his disposal before the Lok Sabha polls and he should put all his efforts to ensure that Congress does well in the elections".
On the challenges before Tanwar, Singh said he has to reorganise the entire structure of HPCC, while taking all leaders along.