Mandya, Mar 10: Actor and Member of Parliament Sumalatha Ambareesh announced that she will extend her support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming assembly elections. Sumalatha had called for a press meet at her residence in Mandya ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the district on March 12. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had earlier said that discussions were held with Sumalatha to induct her into BJP and that the process was underway. She maintained that her decision was taken keeping the development of Mandya district in mind.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sumalatha became the first independent candidate to win the elections in Karnataka in 52 years. She won from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency by defeating Nikhil Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) in a bitterly contested election battle. The BJP did not field a candidate in Mandya and decided to back her while the Congress and JD(S) fielded Nikhil as their candidate. A few Congress rebels who were followers of her late husband and actor Ambareesh also supported her.
“People can draw their conclusions but I have faith in the leadership of Narendra Modi, who is admired across the globe,” Sumalatha said. She also said it is an honour for Mandya that the Prime Minister of the country was visiting the district to inaugurate the expressway. “The Prime Minister could have chosen to inaugurate it either in Mysuru or Bengaluru but he opted for Mandya, which shows the importance of the district,” the MP said.
The MP clarified that the move is aimed at the overall development of Mandya, which according to her, is suffering from a vitiated atmosphere.
In an apparent attack on the JD(S), Sumalatha slammed those “who have turned Mandya into their political citadel and did nothing for the district.” “There is a need for change in Mandya. A vitiated atmosphere has been created here. Let’s carry out a ‘Swachch Bharat Mission’ here in Mandya first,” Sumalatha said.
Karnataka’s Mandya has a large number of voters from the Vokkaliga community and has been a bastion of the JD(S) for decades now. According to the 2011 census, more than half of the 3,83,594 Hindu voters in the constituency belong to the Vokkaliga community.
