Karnataka polls: Akhanda to contest on BSP ticket from Pulakeshinagar

Murthy resigned as MLA after the Congress denied him the ticket

In a last-minute manoeuvre, R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy will contest from Pulakeshinagar on a BSP ticket.

Murthy, who resigned as MLA after the Congress denied him the ticket, had filed his nomination papers as an independent. But he sprang a surprise on Monday by joining the Bahujan Samaj Party. Before that, he had quietly filed another set of nomination papers on the BSP ticket.

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Murthy was the biggest winner of the 2018 Assembly elections. He polled 97,574 of the total 1,25,030 votes. But the 2020 riots in East Bengaluru made him "unpopular" among Muslims, prompting the Congress to field A C Srinivas.

However, Murthy told DH he would win by a " larger" margin.