Congress leader Akhanda Srinivas Murthy on Sunday, April 16, resigned as MLA after he was not given a ticket to contest the upcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka. Srinivas Murthy was an MLA from the Pulikeshinagar Assembly constituency.
The Congress leader met Speaker Vishweshwar Hegade Kageri in Sirsi and submitted his resignation letter. Stating that he has come to resign as an MLA, he said, “I have not been given a ticket and three lists of the Congress party are out. I have suffered enough and I am fed up with this.”
Expressing anguish over the denial of the party ticket, Srinivas Murthy said that he was being treated unfairly. “I have not discussed this with any other party leaders. I have decided to resign after discussing it with the leaders in the constituency. I have decided to contest as an independent candidate. The leaders of the constituency said that they will discuss with the supporters and take decisions,” he added.
The Congress on Saturday released its third list of 43 candidates with former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah being a notable omission from the Kolar constituency. The party has decided to field Kothur G Manjunath from Kolar instead.
This decision ends months of speculation that Siddaramaiah would contest from Kolar. The senior party leader had insisted several times that he plans to contest from Kolar even as the party’s high command asked him to drop the plan and contest from Varuna, which is considered a safer alternative. Meanwhile, the BJP sprung a surprise by deciding to field V Somanna, a sitting minister as Siddaramaiah’s opponent in the Varuna constituency.
The Congress had declared 124 candidates in the first list and another 42 in the second list for the assembly elections. Karnataka is slated to go to polls on May 10 with counting of votes on May 13.