Akhanda quits Congress, to contest as independent

He asserted that people of his constituency are with him and want him back.

Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy

BENGALURU:  Congress MLA from Pulakeshinagar Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy on Sunday resigned as party MLA after failing to make it to the third list last week. On Monday, he filed his nomination as an Independent candidate from the Pulakeshinagar assembly constituency, Murthy confirmed to TNIE.

Murthy, known to be a loyalist of CLP leader Siddaramaiah and Zameer Ahmed Khan, was upset that his name did not figure even in the third list, and charged AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge and KPCC president DK Shivakumar with sidelining him, quoting a “fake internal report”. 

A visibly upset Murthy told TNIE, “Kharge and Shivakumar are quoting some fake internal report in which they have alleged that people in my constituency are unhappy with me, and don’t want me after the August 2020 DJ Halli riots. I have seen the original report in which people have supported my candidature.” 

Congress Shivajinagar candidate Rizwan Arshad participates in a rally ahead of filing his nomination in Bengaluru on Monday | Shashidhar Byrappa

In 2018, the former Congress MLA had won by 81,626 votes --  the highest margin in the assembly elections -- against B Prasanna Kumar of the JDS. He said those involved in the 2020 arson in DJ Halli, which falls under his constituency, following a blasphemous post by his nephew on social media, were “from outside Pulakeshinagar. They were not from my constituency”.

He asserted that people of his constituency are with him and want him back. “I am forced to leave the Congress party. I am confident of winning as an Independent candidate,” he added. Murthy was with the JDS, and left it in 2017 after Siddaramaiah, also a former JDS leader, asked him to switch. 

The Congress, meanwhile, has still not named the candidate for Pulakeshinagar, a minority-dominated and extremely sensitive constituency. According to sources, they may give the ticket to former Pulakeshinagar MLA Kumar, who was earlier with the JDS and returned to the Congress fold in 2021. Kumar is the son of former minister late Basavalingappa. He quit the Congress after Murthy joined the grand old party. 

Pulakeshinagar has a population of around 2,36,000 people, of whom around 50% are Muslims, around 20,000 are Christians, the rest Hindus and others. Murthy arrived in Sirsi late evening, where he waited for speaker VH Kageri to arrive so he could submit his res­igna­tion.