Cong, NC were behind Maharaja Hari Singh's banishment from JK: Karan Singh's son

Veteran Congress leader Karan Singh's son Ajatshatru Singh Wednesday triggered a controversy, accusing the party and the National Conference of being behind the banishment of his grandfather Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruler of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, from there.

A BJP MLC, Ajatshatru Singh made the allegation while campaigning for his party's candidate and Union minister Jitendra Singh, pitted against his (Ajatshtru's) elder brother Vikramaditya Singh on a Congress ticket from Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat.

The younger Dogra dynasty scion hurled the charge, seeking to foil his father and elder brother's attempt to seek votes in the name of his grandfather, who, he said was forced to live in exile in erstwhile Bombay for 14 years till his death there.

"Irrespective of what they say about Maharaja Hari Singh, the Congress and the National Conference conspired to banish the Maharaja from Jammu and Kashmir and forced him to live in exile in Bombay for fourteen years till his death there," he alleged, while addressing a rally in Udhampur.

Referring to the appeals of his father and elder brother to vote the Congress candidate in name of Maharaja Hari Singh, Ajatshatru Singh asked people to judge for themselves about the truth of theMaharaja's exile and parties behind it.

Karan Singh and Vikramaditya Singh have also been batting strongly for a holiday on his birthday in September and targeting the BJP for its failure to grant it.

The Congress fought for the freedom of the country and it was the Congress government in association with my grandfather Maharaja Hari Singh that ensured that the state became part of India," Vikramaditya Singh said at a different rally.

Dismissing the Congress leaders' charges of the BJP doing nothing to declare Maharaja Hari Singh's birthday as a holiday in the state, BJP spokesperson Anil Gupta, a retired Army brigadier, said, "The BJP is fully aware of the history of Jammu and Kashmir."