Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of late actor-politician MH Ambareesh, will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from Mandya. The announcement came at a press meet yesterday in Bengaluru, where the actress was flanked by popular Kannada stars Yash and Darshan.
“I am not contesting elections for myself or my son, I am going to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from Mandya for the people of the district and for the fans of Ambareesh,” the actress was quoted as saying in a ToI report.
It was earlier reported that the actress had approached the Congress party, to which her husband belonged, for a ticket, but Mandya had already been allotted to alliance partner JD(S) as part of seat-sharing. Though she was offered support by the BJP, she leaned towards the Congress. “I would have expected a better fight for the constituency from the Congress. The BJP has not officially given me any support and I cannot comment on it at this point,” she said.
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Nikhil Gowda, son of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, will be pitted against her in Mandya The JD(S) decision to boycott the Shraddanjali programme of her late husband prompted her to not side with the coalition. “They decided to boycott the event and showed that politics is the reason behind it. They wanted to shut me and my family out,” she said.
When reminded about the JD(S) sweeping all eight assembly constituencies in the district, Sumalatha said that she was fighting for the people of Mandya and was not against any party. She is also expecting support from disgruntled Congress workers, and from other fringe groups in the constituency such as the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS).
Sumalatha said she would file her nomination on March 20.
Image Courtesy: Deccan Herald