Mandya: Sandalwood actor Darshan Thoogudeepa hit the campaign trail on Monday, April 1, and appealed to the people to vote for Sumalatha Ambareesh.
Darshan, addressing the rally, thanked everyone irrespective of age, caste, sect and gender for gathering in huge numbers in support of Sumalatha.
He said, “I will not speak ill about any political party or its leaders. On April 18, each of you vote for Sumalatha and the result favouring her will be a befitting reaction to all those who spoke ill about her.”
“Sumalatha has no hunger for power but she is here to fulfill all the promises and to complete the pending projects laid down by Late Ambareesh, for the people of Mandya. Ambareesh has seen everything in politics. Neither Sumalatha has nor Ambareesh had any hunger for power. The very proof of it is that Late Ambareesh had resigned as a union minister and returned home to settle the Kaveri water dispute”, he added.
Meanwhile, he requested the people to vote for Sumalatha stressing on her serial number 20 on EVM since there were three other independent candidates by the same name in the fray.
Sumalatha, wife of late former minister and Kannada actor, M H Ambareesh, is an independent candidate from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. She will be facing off against the JDS and Congress alliance candidate, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and MLA Anita Kumaraswamy.
It can be recalled that there are a lot of tensions in the Mandya constituency as there have been reports of rifts between workers of the JDS and Congress parties. While the Congress and JDS parties have agreed to an alliance, the workers of the former have reportedly continued to show their support to Sumalatha, against the direction of the party leadership.
Also, several JDS leaders, including CM HDK, verbally attacked Darshan for supporting Sumalatha, a former Kannada actor. Sandalwood actor “Rocking Star” Yash has also said that he will campaign for Sumalatha and has been subject to attacks from the JDS, as a result.
