Once PDP’s ‘firebrand’ leader and former MP Tariq Hamid Karra is likely to join Congress as its president while its present president will contest election from Anantnag parliamentary constituency.
In 2014, Karra, 61, created history by defeating NC’s incumbent president Farooq Abdullah in parliamentary elections.
Then a close confidant of PDP’s president Mehbooba Mufti, Karra’s ‘happiness’ couldn’t last longer when his party ‘joined’ hands with BJP to form a government.
He was among a few PDP core members who were against this ‘north-south’ pole alliance.
But while other’s made peace with party’s decision, Karra resigned as MP at the peak of 2016 uprising.
Karra, who was finance ministre in previous PDP-Congress coalition government, is still remembered for his idea of dual currency.
However, during his second tenure, Karra didn’t attend any party meetings, except one. He was always vocal and lambasted his party urging them to snap ties with communal BJP.
Karra was always in news for his firebang quotes in which he would train guns at his party. In 2016, Karra blamed PDP for giving forces free hand to quell the protests.
His statement that pellet guns used in 2010 are deadlier than the ones used in 2016, caused ripples among his party.
On September 16, Karra announced his resignation and blamed the PDP-BJP alliance for the ongoing turmoil.
Before he announced his resignation he famously said, “The seeds of deceit, disillusionment and disenchantment were sown in the minds and hearts of people the day the PDP tied an alliance with the BJP.” He blamed the PDP-BJP alliance for adopting a narrative which is “all about” killings, torture, maiming and blinding of Kashmiri people, ransacking of houses, arrests and night raids.
Days before he resigned he didn’t shy away from voicing his resentment viz-a-viz performance of PDP. “People have seen the real face of this party and it is destined to ‘disappear’ from the political map of Jammu and Kashmir.” He blamed the PDP and said: “On the behest of RSS, the party is butchering people in Kashmir and history will record their new narrative of killings in black letters.”
Karra won his first election after, Ghulam Mohi Ud Din Shah, a National Conference politician, died in 2004. He successfully contested from Batamaloo, a seat left vacant by his Shah’s death.
An old NC man, when Sher-i-Kashmir was incarcerated, Karra family actually helped and nourished Farooq Abdullah and his siblings. That might be the reason that political pundits began speculating that Karra will join NC after he resigned from PDP.
But insiders say he had played his cards in Nuwai Subh even before parliamentary elections!
(Saima Bhat)
