Ahead of the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections, many unhappy senior leaders from the Congress party are expected to join the BJP. Sources now suggest that another Vokkaliga heavyweight & mass leader from the Mandya region, Ambareesh is all set to join the BJP. While there has been some speculation about Ambareesh quitting the party for some time now, it is also expected that Ambareesh may bring his wife Sumalatha to the BJP. The actor-turned politician hopes to launch his wife into electoral politics on a BJP ticket.
Sources suggest that Sumalatha, the 53 year old actress is in the race to contest assembly polls from the star-studded Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency in Bangalore. Sumalatha is a well-known name in the Kannada Film Industry & the star couple are expecting to capitalize on the celebrity voter turnout in the locality of Rajarajeshwari Nagar. The locality that houses dozens of celebrities may help Sumalatha get a strong foothold. Sources from the BJP however, suggest that Sumalatha’s entry into the saffron party may be a precondition for Ambareesh to join the party.
While the BJP maintains that it may be too early to confirm if Sumalatha would be their candidate since Ambareesh has not made any direct confirmation, Sumalatha’s social media activity may provide some proof. Sumalatha who was always in the news for her anti-modi comments, had recently deleted the posts where she had slammed the P.M. Sumalatha also spoke against Demonetization earlier & had slammed the implementation. Leaders from the Congress & BJP believe that Sumalatha’s deleting of posts may be an attempt aimed at erasing the earlier perspective in order to please the ‘new’ party leaders.
Sources suggest that A Ravi, Tulsi Muniraju, Ramachandra, Cheluvarayaswami are also in the race to contest from the Rajarajeshwari nagar seat, apart from Sumalatha if Ambareesh joins the BJP. The BJP suggests that there will not be any clear picture till November. The BJP high command is expected to visit the state of Karnataka after the Gujarat polls & decide on the list of candidates.
Alok Shetty
