NC-Cong alliance aimed at safeguarding J&K’s interests, has pained BJP: Karra

Srinagar, Sep 05: “The Congress Party’s alliance with the National Conference is aimed at safeguarding the interests of the people of J&K and has pained the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership,” the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President, Tariq Hameed Karra said on Thursday.
After filing his nomination from the Central Shalteng Assembly constituency, he said independent candidates are being made to contest elections to divide votes.
“The people should look closely at what is right and wrong,” Karra said. “People of J&K know that I am the only one who has taken strict decisions in the interest of people. Our alliance has disturbed the BJP’s chessboard for J&K.”
If we don’t have any problems with their alliances, why is the BJP more worried in J&K, he asked.
Karra defended his party’s alliance with the National Conference, saying it was to fight against “dictatorship” and to “reclaim what is rightfully ours”.
“Since 2014, a deliberate strategy has been in place to disempower Kashmiris and it is being implemented,” he alleged.
Flanked by enthusiastic supporters chanting slogans in his favour, Karra formally submitted his nomination papers to the returning officer of his constituency.
The JKPCC Chief said this nomination is a “tribute to every Kashmiri who has yearned for democratic rights and every citizen of Jammu & Kashmir who sacrificed for secularism and democratic values”.
In response to BJP leader Ram Madhav’s claim that political parties in Kashmir are nominating ex-terrorists, the former MP said, “Madhav is oblivious to his own party’s past, as it had recruited ex-terrorists just a few years ago.”
Karra, who recently took over as Pradesh Congress Committee chief in August, said, “This is not just an election after a decade; it is a once-in-a-century opportunity to shape Jammu & Kashmir’s future for the next 100 years.” “We now have the chance to write a new chapter in J&K’s history, one that will define its trajectory for the next century,” he said.