Sumalatha Ambareesh defeats Nikhil Kumaraswamy in Karnataka's Mandya Lok Sabha constituency

Bengaluru: Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh has defeated Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Kumaraswamy with a margin of over 1 lakh votes. Sumalatha Ambareesh is the wife of three-time Congress MP and film star Ambareesh who died last year. She contested as an Independent after being denied ticket by the Congress. In 2014, the seat was won by CS Puttaraju of JD(S) when he beat current Congress social media head and actor Divya Spandana (Ramya). Spandana had won the bypoll here in 2013. In 2009, N Chaluvaraya Swamy of JD(S) won with a margin of 23,000 votes by beating Ambareesh of the Congress. Before that the seat was held by Ambareesh for several years. During the campaign, Sumalatha accused JD(S) of being dynast party asserting that he got the ticket because of him being the son the CM and grand son of the former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. "I'm sorry. I didn't get this because I am Deve Gowda's grandson, Kumaraswamy's son. I got this because of my eight MLAs, Shivarame's support, three MLCs and the whole of the local leaders," Nikhil had said while defending the charge. Source : Times Now