Two stars of Sandalwood contesting the election for the first time face each other in Mandya. The constituency is considered sensitive and section 144 will be in effect in the entire district tomorrow (May 23).
Mandya: Mandya is one of the high-profile constituencies in Karnataka despite both key candidates being debutants. It is considered the star-studded constituency as both Sumalatha the independent candidate supported by the BJP and Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) candidate are from Kannada film industry.
Though initially Nikhil Kumaraswamy was leading in Mandya, currently, BJP-supported Independent candidate Sumalatha is leading in the constituency. Sumalatha has secured over 65,000 votes and Nikhil has managed to get only 53,000 votes so far.
Sumalatha is wife of actor and politician Ambareesh who passed away on November 24, 2018. There was a demand in the Congress cadre to give Sumalatha a ticket from Mandya. But as the Congress had a seat sharing agreement with the JD(S), Mandya was given away to the latter.
There was a talk that Sumalatha might be fielded from the JD(S), but the party decided to field chief minister Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil in Mandya, despite protests.
Both Sumalatha and Nikhil had huge number of supporters attending campaigns. Sumalatha has received support by the BJP along with top stars of Kannada, Yash of KGF fame and Challenging Star Darshan.
Sumalatha is a multilingual actress and a well-known name among people of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu too.
Nikhil has acted in two movies; Jaguar and Seetharama Kalyana and is supported by the party cadre.
Both campaigns saw supporters challenging the key opponents and many fights prevailed in the Mandya.
In order to prevent any untoward incident, section 144 (prohibitory orders) has been imposed in Mandya. Usually section 144 is enforced only within 100 metres of the counting centres, but as Mandya is considered a sensitive constituency, the entire district will be under restriction till the announcement of results.
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