Sumalatha Ambareesh, the veteran actor and wife of late former Congress lawmaker MH Ambareesh created history on Thursday by becoming the first independent candidate to successfully contest Lok Sabha polls from Karnataka in 52 years.
According to Election Commission of India (EC) website, Sumalatha got 51.02 per cent votes (701122 votes). Janata Dal (Secular) candidate from the seat, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, came second with 41.89 per cent votes (575740 votes).
Nikhil is the son of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
In February this year, Sumalatha made headlines for declaring that she would contest Lok Sabha elections from Mandya - a seat her husband had represented both as Member of Parliament and Member of Legislative Assembly. MH Ambareesh passed away in November last year.
On March 18, Sumalatha announced that she would contest from Mandya parliamentary constituency as an independent candidate in the Lok Sabha elections after Congress gave the seat to JD(S) as a part of the seat-sharing deal finalised between two alliance partners.
BJP had supported her by not fielding any candidate from the Lok Sabha seat.
The BJP-led NDA is comfortably set for a return to power at the centre with the alliance in a comfortable lead on about 340 Lok Sabha seats in the country.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content