Won’t contest from BJP at any cost, says Akhanda

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Congress MLA from Pulakeshi Nagar Akhanda Srinivas Murthy has clarified that he would not be joining the BJP for a ticket in the upcoming Assembly elections. He added that he wouldn’t mind contesting on a JD(S) ticket, failing that he would file nomination papers as an independent.

He also clarified that he hadn’t quit from the primary membership of the Congress to the YouTube channel ‘Bangalore Akbar’. Murthy had tendered his resignation to Speaker Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri at the latter’s Sirsi residence in Uttara Kannada district on Sunday.

The reason being that Congress had released three lists including 209 candidates but the Pulakeshi Nagar segment hadn’t figured in them. Akhanda had bagged more than 97,000 votes in the segment in the 2018 Assembly elections, beating out second place JD(S) candidate B Prasanna Kumar by over 81,000 votes. As such, he feels fairly confident of winning , were he to contest as an independent.

The two-time MLA from Pulakeshi Nagar said that he had put out feelers and that JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy would take a call on whether he would contest on the regional outfit’s ticket. “I’m trying. If I succeed in that attempt, I would thank God. If not, that’s okay too. I’ll consider contesting as an independent,” Murthy said.

“You have been observing me for the past 10 years (as MLA). I was born and raised here (in Pulakeshi Nagar). Hindus, Muslims and Christians here are like brothers and have waged political struggles together. We don’t have ill will against each other, nor will we in the future. We’ll continue like this. There is no question of me going over to the BJP,” he said, adding that rumours of him joining BJP are false