Tarka's UMBC, a predominantly Christian party contested the pre-independence election of 1959 and the subsequent election of 1963 against the mainly Moslem Northern People's Congress. Both elections led to violence in the Middle Belt, which contributed to the Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu's inspired military take-over on January 15, 1966. Tarka was an advocate of state creation to give politically and economically empower minority groups within the country. He supported the creation of a Middle Belt state before the republic was truncated.