MANDYA: Veteran multi-lingual actress Sumalatha, wife of former Congress leader M H Ambareesh, scripted history in the sugar bowl of Karnataka, winning the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency with a huge margin of 1.25 lakh after a bitterly fought campaign. Also, she will be the first Independent Lok Sabha member from Karnataka in 52 years. Mandya, which went to polls in the first phase, witnessed a voter turnout of 80.23%, the highest in state.
What makes the success even more sweet for Sumalatha is that she took on the might of the H D Deve Gowda family, which had fielded Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil in the Vokkaliga-dominated seat. Coincidentally, both Sumalatha and Nikhil were taking the political plunge for the first time. While Sumalatha got 7,03,660 votes, Nikhil secured 5,77,784 votes.
JDS has 10 legislators from Mandya. Also, in 2018 bypoll, party candidate L R Shivarame Gowda won by 2.5 lakh votes.
A novice in politics, Sumalatha initially hoped that the Congress would give her a ticket, but the party chose to leave the seat to its coalition partner JDS. Her late husband Ambareesh had represented Mandya in the past for Congress. Egged on by her husband’s supporters, Sumalatha decided to contest as an independent. Banking on the charisma of Ambareesh, who was popular as ‘Mandyada Gandu’, Sumalatha projected herself as the saviour of Mandya’s pride.
She played her cards smartly when JDS leaders raised questions about her origin, calling her an outsider and not a ‘Gowdathi’. The blunt attacks by H D Revanna, L R Shivarame Gowda, K T Srikantegowda and others, and the trolling on social media during the campaign did not go down well with the people. Her personalised interactions and rallies also helped her.
The veteran actress took on the administrative machinery and knocked on the doors of the Election Commission to see that local electoral officers and other personnel were moved out of Mandya. She also reached out to Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, disgruntled Congress MLAs, backward community leaders, women and youth. Actors Darshan and Yash added star power to her campaign while the BJP too extended its support, making it a keenly-watched contest.