Bengaluru: Two days after she announced at Mandya that she would be soon joining  BJP, the party which backed her in the 2019 LS polls, independent MP from Mandya, Sumalatha Ambarish, wife of late actor and politician Ambarish, officially  joined the BJP this morning at the BJP State Headquarters in Malleswaram, Bengaluru .

Former Chief Minister and BJP veteran B.S.Yediyurappa welcomed Sumalatha to the Party by presenting her the party flag, in the presence of BJP State election In-charge Radhamohandas Agarwal, State BJP Chief B.Y. Vijayendra, former Minister C.T. Ravi, Bangalore North MP and former Chief Minister D.V. Sadanandagowda, Opposition leader R. Ashoka and a host of other BJP leaders, her son Abhishek Ambarish, film producer Rockline Venkatesh and others. A large number of her supporters from Mandya  thronged the State BJP headquarters to be present for the event. Former Cricketer Dodda Ganesh too joined the party on the occasion.

It may be mentioned here that Sumalatha, who was a keen aspirant for the BJP ticket from Mandya this time, had sulked after the BJP left the seat to its alliance partner-JD(S) as per the seat sharing agreement reached between the two parties. Sumalatha then, was  said to be planning to contest again as an independent. But after the decisive  meeting with her supporters that took place  at Kalikamba temple premises in Mandya on Apr.3, Sumalatha declared that she would not be contesting as an independent candidate and would join the BJP soon.

Former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H.D.Kumaraswamy is contesting as the coalition candidate from Mandya.