Congress would have won 10 seats without JDS: Sumalatha Ambareesh

BENGALURU: Actor Sumalatha Ambareesh, who pulled off a spectacular win against Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son in Mandya, said the Congress’ defeat in the Lok Sabha election is a sign that people have not accepted the JDS-Congress coalition regime.

“People have not accepted the alliance at all. I was trying to convince the Congress leaders (before LS polls) that if they don’t take their own initiatives, and merely go by whatever the JDS was saying, they were going to lose,” the 55 year-old south Indian actor told ET in an interview. She had contested as an independent backed by the BJP.

Congress, she said, would have won at least 10 seats if the party had contested on its own. “They (Cong) gave up many winning seats. The Congress had good candidates in many seats, and they had an upper hand in those constituencies. But they made things easier for the BJP,” she said.


The wife of deceased Kannada star-turned-politician Ambareesh said the JDS-Congress coalition regime looked shaky from day one.