Senior Congress leader Tariq Hameed Karra formally took over as president of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) in Delhi yesterday. Mr. Karra expressed his willingness to contest for any assembly seat in Srinagar, including his political bastion Central Shalteng, formerly Batamaloo. He said, his immediate focus would be assembly elections and win seats for his party. Karra said that the decision on the pre-poll alliance with regional parties of J&K would be taken only after the consultation with local leaders and central leadership.  

The former PDP leader, Mr. Kara was also finance minister of the erstwhile state during the PDP-Congress coalition government. He had been against the BJP-PDP alliance and resigned from the Lok Sabha and PDP in 2016 and joined Congress in 2017.