Independent MP Sumalatha Ambareesh to join BJP on Friday

Mandya’s independent MP Sumalatha Ambareesh has announced she would join the BJP on Friday.

The actor-turned-politician had won the 2019 general elections with the support of the BJP, defeating former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda’s grandson and H D Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy.

Sumalatha said on Wednesday she would not contest the coming Lok Sabha elections and would join the BJP. In a post on ‘X’ on Thursday, she said she had declared that she would support the BJP for the development of Mandya and also to see Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister again.

“Accordingly, I am officially joining the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of BJP leaders on Friday April 5, 2024 at 11.30 am at the Bharatiya Janata Party office in Bengaluru,” she said.

JD(S) joined the NDA in September last year.

As part of the seat-sharing arrangement in Karnataka, the BJP would contest in 25 constituencies and the JDS the remaining three, including Mandya, from where former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has entered the fray.