Jammu, Aug. 28 -- The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress on Thursday spurned the offer of the National Conference (NC) to join the council of ministers. Addressing mediapersons during a workers' conclave in Reasi, party's J&K president Tariq Hameed Karra said, "There is no doubt that the NC is interested in including Congress in the council of ministers. However, Congress has, for the past two years, adopted a principled stand. Until the Centre restores the rights of 1.40 crore people of J&K that were taken away unilaterally, undemocratically and unconstitutionally, we won't be part of the cabinet." He was referring to the abrogation of Article 370 seven years ago, which turned J&K into a union territory. Earlier in the day, J&K deputy chief minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary said Congress, being an alliance partner, has every right to join the Omar Abdullah-led government and expressed hope that it would soon take a decision in this regard. Karra cornered the NC over the recent power tariff hike of 6.83%. He also said that the BJP had no right to raise questions. "The J&K government is de facto being run by them. Ask them what they did when they were running a double-engine government in J&K. We are part of the NC government, but it doesn't mean that Congress will stop raising the issues of the people," he said, adding that his party expected a one-time amnesty scheme for poor consumers....