With Sandalwood stars on her side, Sumalatha rides wave of popularity

MANDYA: Songs from an Ambareesh film rend the air as Sumalatha, who is taking on CM’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy in Mandya, arrives to solicit votes at a nondescript village off the Mysuru-Bengaluru national highway. Just before she arrives, Nirmala, 42, who only a fortnight ago underwent hip replacement surgery, ambles out of her home with the help of a walker and takes up a vantage point on the edge of the road.She returns home only after she catches a glimpse of Sumalatha, widow of actorpolitican HM Ambareesh, riding in an SUV.
“Sumalatha is a rebel and is standing her ground even when politicians are unkind to her and criticising her for her political stand,” Nirmala says, explaining her affection for the independent candidate. Sumalatha campaigns from 9am and visits about 30 villages a day. At every street corner meeting, she tells the crowd that Ambareesh is with her. She says Mandya is her political karmabhoomi and calls criticism hurled at her slurs. “I’ll not respond to them,” she says. “But people should give a befitting reply to my critics through their votes. My serial number (in the ballot unit) is 20. My photograph will be next to the button which you have to press. It will be second on the ballot unit.”
Taking on the JD(S) in its bastion, her poll managers have divided the constituency between actors Yash and Darshan, her star campaigners. Her son Abhishek, also an actor, is campaigning separately.
MA Madan Kumar, Ambareesh’s nephew and Sumalatha’s election agent, said the people who worked with Ambareesh plots her campaign — the villages she needs to visit and the route to get there. “They are doing it out of love for Ambareesh,” he said.
Sumalatha has rented a house in Chamundeshwari Nagar, Mandya where she meets her poll managers. At the end of each day, she takes stock. “She discusses the plan for the next day,” said Belur Somashekar, a long-time associate of Ambareesh and president of Akhila Karnataka Ambareesh Abhimanigala Sangha.