Sumalatha set to join BJP; not to contest LS polls
Sumalatha Ambareesh, incumbent Mandya MP, who won as an Independent in the 2019 elections, announced her decision to join the BJP and not contest the elections.
This has brought an end to the suspense over her next move, which kept both the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) on tenterhooks as the two have entered into a prepoll alliance, with the BJP supporting the JD(S) candidate and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy who is contesting from Mandya. With Ms. Sumalatha withdrawing from the electoral fray and set to
join the BJP, Mandya is set to witness a direct contest between the Congress and the JD (S).
Her decision not to contest the polls and join the BJP also means that the compulsions of coalition politics have forced Ms. Sumalatha to sink her differences with Mr. Kumaraswamy and campaign for him in Mandya in a reversal of scenario that saw acrimonious and noholdsbarred attacks on each other by the two during the last five years.
Ms. Sumalatha announced her decision at a public meeting of her supporters in Mandya on Wednesday.
She said the present political climate is such that people leave political parties or switch parties on being denied a ticket. But she was joining a political party though she was not given a ticket. ‘‘The BJP offered me Mysuru, Bengaluru North, and Chickballapur, but I decided not to leave Mandya at any cost and will stay here despite not contesting the elections this time,” Ms. Sumalatha said.
“I am not contesting the elections this year, but this does not mean that I am leaving Mandya. On the contrary, you will see me – not as an Independent but as someone with the backing of the rank and file of a party whose leader envisages a developed India by 2047,” she said, giving her first hint of joining the BJP, which was followed by her official announcement.
That she was set to join the BJP also stemmed from her remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi treated her with due respect and, notwithstanding the fact that she was an Independent MP, had released funds to the tune of ₹4,000 crore for Mandya district, said Ms. Sumalatha.
She also contrasted the respect she received from the BJP leaders with the “disdain” displayed by Congress and cited a senior party leader who was quoted as saying that the “Congress had no need for Sumalatha in the past, has no need for her in the present and nor will it need her in future.”