K R Pete: Veerashaiva taluk president Vaddarahalli Dhananjay criticized Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambareesh for not looking into the flood-related matters of her constituency.
On Sunday, October 27, he had criticized Sumalatha saying, “Sumalatha madam, yelliddira? (Sumalatha madam, where are you?). People have lost their houses here due to the floods and crops spread over 800 acres of land, have been damaged. Being an MP, she should have at least made it a point to visit the flood-hit areas. If not her, at least Mandya district in-charge minister R Ashok should have paid us a visit.”
“During the 2019 general election campaign in Mandya, the people had mocked Janata Dal (Secular) candidate and former CM H D Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy by saying, ‘Nikhil Yellidiyappa?’ (Nikhil, where are you?). Now, the same situation has come for Sumalatha,” he added.
Further lambasting the MP, Dhananjay said, “Sumalatha had campaigned during the general elections in the name of ‘self-respect’, now where has that gone? She has not visited the town even once after winning the election. She conducted a meeting here once, just for the sake of doing so, and never looked back. R Ashok and Sumalatha have not visited the town even once to try and console the flood victims. Why should these people even continue as leaders?”
According to him, except for the Tahsildar, even Deputy Commissioner Dr M V Venkatesh or other concerned officials had not visited the town and inspected the situation. Dhananjay also said that the town has incurred a loss of an estimated Rs 15 crores owing to the floods.
Meanwhile, he urged Sumalatha to immediately sanction the flood relief amount from the Central Government. He then warned that, if this is not done, a letter will be written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and President Ramnath Kovind in this regard.
