JKPCC Chief Tariq Hameed Karra To Vie For Central Shalteng Seat (image:x.com/TariqKarra)

The current Kashmir Assembly election marks JKPCC Chief Tariq Hameed Karra’s first election after joining Congress in 2017. In the polls, he will contest from Central Shalteng Assembly constituency. He took over the role of Congress Chief replacing former Minister Vikar Rasool Wani in August this year.

Karra quit Mehbooba Multi-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2016, expressing ideological disagreements with the party – especially their unholy alliance with the BJP. A few months after resignation, he joined the grand old party in 2017. Soon, Karra was nominated as the Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and was entrusted with strengthening the party within the region.

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Karra, the veteran leader, was one of the founding member of the PDP. He was the first general secretary of the party when it was launched in 1999 by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. His influential role in the party’s growth in Srinagar was counted noteworthy.

In 2004 byelection, Tarra made his electoral debut from Batmaloo Assembly constituency. The seat was left vacant due to death of National Conference (NC) leader Ghulam Mohiuddin Shah. In the polls, Karra received 6856 votes. He defeated NC’s Irfan Ahmed Shah by a margin of 3,268 votes.

Over the course of years, Karra emerged as the PDP’s face in Srinagar as well as a close associate of Sayeed. His position further solidified during his term as Finance Minister under Sayeed-led PDP-Congress coalition government during 2002-08. He proposed famous ‘dual currency’ concept between the divided parts of Kashmir as a strategy to resolve the Kashmir issue, the Wire reports.

In the electoral front, however, he received a setback from Batamaloo constituency in 2008. In the Assembly polls, NC candidate Mohamad Irfan Shah defeated Karra by a margin of 2,709 votes.

But Karra made a great comeback with his win in the 2014 Assembly election and lauded as ‘Man of the Match’. He secured 1,57,923 votes in the polls and defeated NC patriarch Dr Farooq Abdullah by a margin 42,280 votes.

However, as per the Wire report, even though Karra gained a commendable victory he was neglected after 2014 assembly polls when new entrants of the party where lining up to offer their allegiance to the PDP. When the party forged alliance government with the BJP, Karra’s difference with the party, especially with the Muftis became open.

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He announced decision to resign from the party and the parliament also as a protest against innocent civilian killings in Kashmir. “My conscience cannot take it anymore…the party has created new records of spilling Kashmir blood,” the Wire quotes, as Karra is saying. He has released a seven-page statement detailing reasons for the resignation citing some controversies which, as per his observation have instilled fear among Muslims about the RSS-governed BJP as well as outrage against the PDP for providing facilitation to its alliance partner.

Karra hails from Batamaloo in Srinagar. A law graduate, he comes from a family of political lineage. He is the son of late National Conference (NC) leader, Ghulam Mohi Ud Din Karra. He won the maiden election in 2004 after his father’s demise.