With HDK slated to announce the Mandya candidate, Sumalatha may contest as Independent

BENGALURU: All eyes are on the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka ahead of the upcoming election. After the BJP and JD(S) entered into an alliance, there is much curiosity about Sumalatha Ambareesh’s political future.

There was much expectation that JD(S) leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy would announce the candidate for Mandya constituency today, but he will likely announce the candidate tomorrow.

Sumalatha and Kumaraswamy families have been political rivals since 2019. It may be recalled that Sumalatha won the Mandya Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 election as an independent candidate against JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy.

This time, Sumalatha was very confident that the BJP would allot tickets for her, but she was in for a surprise announcement from the BJP high command. Now, after the BJP top brass declared that the JD(S) will announce the Mandya candidate, questions are doing the rounds whether Sumalatha will rewrite history by contesting as an independent again or whether she will cooperate with the alliance.

There were speculations that the BJP would field Sumalatha from Mandya or Bangalore North, but the BJP gave up the Mandya seat to the JD(S). This has raised curiosity about the next move by the disgruntled Sumalatha.

Amidst this, Sumalatha is left with few choices — support the JD(S) candidate without showing her displeasure over the party; contest as an independent candidate in Mandya; remain neutral in the campaign activities as she has previous enmity with H D Kumaraswamy’s family.

Sumalatha may also declare her cooperation with the Congress candidate in the election going against the BJP, as she did not get a ticket, or she may openly declare her support for Kumaraswamy, forgetting the past rivalry. The developments in the coming days will be interesting to watch.