Bengaluru: After days of speculation whether late Congress leader M H Ambareesh’s wife and actor Sumalatha would be contesting the coming elections with the support of BJP, she announced yesterday that she will contest from Mandya seat as an independent candidate and that she would file her nomination from Mandya on 20 March.
Sumalatha will be pitched against Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Gowda. She announced the decision flanked by Kannada actors Yash and Darshan and said her decision to fight the elections from Mandya would cost the Congress dear and that it would be very tough for the party to make a comeback in that region.
She stated that many Congress leaders in the State were facing identity crisis and so they approached and requested her to fight the elections. She was denied the party’s support due to coalition compulsion. Congress leaders including Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao and Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah had declined her a ticket.
The Congress had during the seat sharing talks left the seat for its coalition partner JD(S) as Mandya is the heartland of Vokkaliga community. The JD(S) had won all the eight assembly segments under the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency in the 2018 Karnataka elections.
According to media reports, clamour was also growing within the BJP to induct her into the party and field her as the candidate. A section within the BJP believe that if Sumalatha joins the party and is fielded as a candidate in Mandya, it would help the saffron party, which doesn’t have much presence in the Vokkaliga bastion.
Following this, on 15 March, Sumalatha met senior BJP leader and former Karnataka Chief Minster S M Krishna and sought his support. BJP had reportedly said that a decision would be taken on whether to field a candidate from Mandya or support Sumalatha by not fielding a candidate. Conceding that there is a demand within the BJP to field a candidate from Mandya, he had reportedly said. But she did not get any offer from them.
Sumalatha said that she hoped that some BJP and Congress leaders would support her because they had loved Ambareesh. “I have been reading in the media about some BJP and Congress leaders willing to extend support to me. I hope I will get their support because Ambareesh was an apolitical being and he was loved by almost all political parties,” she said.
There has been reports that Congress had tried to persuade her not to contest from Mandya, but Sumalatha seems to have refused to back pedal.
When asked which party she would support if she wins from Mandya, Sumalatha said she was not bothered about losing or winning the election, and would take a decision after consulting the people of Mandya. “I declined so many posts including MLC’s offered by the Congress in the past. I am entering in to politics for the people of Mandya. I have heeded the people’s request. It is Mandya or nothing for me. I am going to fight for Mandya. I am not bothered about winning or losing,” she added.
She further stated that she had not invited any actors and that Yash and Darshan had come on their own as they considered themselves a part of her family. She further expressed confidence that the people of Mandya would vote for her to fill the vacuum left by Amareesh. Her late husband Ambareesh, a former Congress MP, represented Mandya in the Lok Sabha thrice.