Tariq Hameed Karra joins Cong, says BJP-PDP alliance implementing RSS agenda

Former Lok Sabha member of PDP Tariq Hameed Karra on Saturday joined Congress and said the move was necessitated as the PDP-BJP alliance was only implementing the "RSS agenda" in Jammu and Kashmir.

61-year-old Karra met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi and was welcomed by them into the party. Founder member of PDP along with late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Karra had submitted his resignation from the Lok Sabhain September last year protesting against the alleged excessesbeing committed by security forces in quelling widespread protests after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.

The resignation was accepted by the Lok Sabha secretariat in November last year. "Basically after PDP backed an agenda of BJP which is dictated by the RSS, the political dynamics of the state changed. People in the state never accepted the in roads madeby the RSS into the state politics using PDP-BJP alliance as a tool," Karra told.

"The alliance between PDP and BJP had necessitated needfor realignment of political forces in the state. Kashmir issue has been put in a deep slumber by the ruling alliance,"he said. Karra, whose uncle G M Sadiq was the first Congress chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said there was an urgent need for secular parties to come together to fight the "fascist forces in the state".