Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 20: Former PDP leader and ex-Member Parliament member, Tariq Hameed Karra, today claimed that he was offered the Chief Minister’s chair by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) three times for ensuring that the PDP-BJP alliance Government in Jammu and Kashmir continued uniterrupted.
“I was offered the Chief Minister’s chair twice after Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s death, and once even when he was alive, by the BJP. Their agenda was to keep the (PDP-BJP) Government in place,” Karra told reporters here.
Karra said the offer was made by the top brass of the BJP. He said the BJP had asked him to take over as the Chief Minister when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was not keeping well. “They told me that Mufti Sahib is not able to run (the Government) effectively and asked me to become the Chief Minister but I rejected it.”
He said there was no truth in allegations against him that he quit the PDP and the Lok Sabha as he did not find any place in the Council of Ministers in the current dispensation. “When I rejected the Chief Ministership offer three times, why should I hanker after Ministerial berth?”, he said.
Karra also claimed that the BJP had offered him tonnes of rupees in lieu of forging an alliance that party. “I told them that I do not oppose the BJP and the RSS out of convenience or compulsion but I oppose the BJP and the RSS out of conviction,” he said.
On his political future, Karra said he had three options, including floating a new political party, and he would opt for the one which will lead to resolution of Kashmir issue and oppose the BJP and RSS policies in the State. He said a decision in this regard will be taken in consultation with his workers.
Karra became the first sitting Lok Sabha member from Jammu and Kashmir to resign from his seat on September 15 over the excessive use of force against protestors.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel