The Karnataka political scene became highly tensed after Karnataka’s former Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, of Janata Dal Party, made controversial comments on actor turned politician Sumalatha. Sumalatha is the wife of Kannada actor, the late Ambareesh, who was a member of the Congress party and won as an MP from Congress, several times. Sumalatha entered politics after the passing of Ambareesh.
The Congress failed to incorporate and give Sumalatha the MP ticket of Mandya. As a result, she won as an independent candidate from Mandya, defeating Janata Party Dal’s Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the son of Kumaraswamy. Sumalatha recently criticised the cracks at the KRS dam, which resulted in heavy water leakage, which has been brought about by the sand excavations near the dam. Political experts say that Sumalatha indirectly targeted Kumaraswamy through these statements.
Kumaraswamy retorted to these comments, saying that Sumalatha should sleep on the cracks to prevent water leakage. This did not go down well with Sumalatha, her followers and women’s groups in the state.
Sumalatha said that she would lodge an official complaint with the women’s groups in the state, and said that these comments made by Kumaraswamy stem from the hurt of his son’s loss, which hasn’t yet healed for them. Kumaraswamy further went on to say that he has voice recordings of Sumalatha, which he would expose right before the elections.
Sumalatha asked why Kumaraswamy needed that much time to release those recordings, and asked if this time was to morph and edit fake recordings to pass off as her’s. All in all, Kumaraswamy’s comments on Sumalatha are derogatory and demeaning, which are attracting a lot of criticisms on social media.