Congress MLA resigns over delay in ticket

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Congress MLA from Pulakeshi Nagar Akhanda Srinivas Murthy on Sunday tendered his resignation to Speaker Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri at the latter’s Sirsi residence in Uttara Kannada district.

The Grand Old Party has released three lists including 209 candidates but Pulakeshi Nagar constituency hasn’t figured in them. Murthy had bagged more than 97,000 votes in the segment in the 2018 Assembly elections, beating to second place JD(S) candidate B Prasanna Kumar by over 81,000 votes.

The Congress leader held a meeting with his supporters on Saturday to discuss his next course of action, presumably wondering aloud if he should join another party or contest as an independent.

Nephew’s FB post cost Murthy?

It is being speculated that the delay or possibly denial of the ticket to Murthy was down to an incident that took place in August 2020. Murthy’s maternal nephew P Naveen had posted a derogatory meme about the prophet of Islam on Facebook.

A section of the Muslim community including members of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) was enraged at this and tried to file an FIR against Naveen at the DJ Halli police station on the same day.

SDPI members alleged that cops were reluctant to register the FIR either because the offender was an MLA’s nephew or because he was being protected by the lawmaker. They reacted with arson and vandalism for which more than 200, including SDPI members were booked. Members of the Muslim community claimed that the youth, including those who hadn’t indulged in violence, were treated poorly and beaten up in prison thereafter.

Since then, there has been a demand from some Muslims that Congress field someone else from Pulakeshi Nagar. The seat is reserved for SCs and it is relatively difficult to find a candidate for it. Muslim civil society members are also miffed that the community has gotten only 12 tickets from the party so far.