She had earlier asked the BJP for re-election from the Mandya seat.
Bangalore:
Actor-turned-politician and independent MP Sumalatha Ambarish from Mandya in Karnataka joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday.
Senior BJP leader BS Yediyurappa, state president BY Vijayendra, leader of opposition in the state assembly R Ashoka, national secretary for Karnataka elections Radha Mohan Das Agarwal and former chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda among others welcomed the 60 delegates. Joined the party here at the state headquarters when he was just one year old.
As the BJP will cede the Mandya seat to its alliance partner JD(S) in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Sumalatha announced on Wednesday after consulting supporters and well-wishers of Mandya She decided to withdraw from the elections and join the BJP.
Popular film star MH Ambareesh’s wife Sumalatha had earlier requested the BJP to get re-election from the Mandya seat her late husband represented in the past. But the party convinced her and handed it over to the JD(S).
JD(S) state president and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy is now the alliance’s joint candidate from Mandya.
Kumaraswamy met Sumalatha on Sunday and sought her cooperation in the polls.
As an independent candidate, Sumalatha defeated then Chief Minister Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaras of the JD(S) by a margin of 1,25,876 votes with the support of the BJP. Wami, won the seat in 2019.
The election at that time was a fierce fight. The JD(S) was then in alliance with the Congress.
Sumalatha entered politics in 2019 and contested the polls as an independent after her late husband’s Congress rejected her candidacy as the party had ceded the Mandya seat to the then alliance Partner JD(S). At that time, both parties were forming a coalition government with Kumaraswamy as chief minister.
The late Ambarish served as a Karnataka MP, MLA and minister and a central member of the Congress government. He was also a member of the PPP in the past. In the 2019 polls, Sumalatha triggered a wave of sympathy after the death of her husband, an icon in Mandya district.
Popular Kannada film stars like Darshan Thoogudeepa and Yash (Naveen Kumar Gowda) and her son Abishek Ambareesh campaigned extensively for her at the time.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
