Karnataka Election 2023: Will Ramya contest from Mandya?

Handpicked by Rahul Gandhi, Ramya rose in the ranks quickly and added the much-needed spark to the party on the virtual space. However, she later got embroiled in corruption charges and had to quit the party.

As the poll battle heats up in Karnataka, all the parties have started reaching out to potential candidates to garner maximum support from the electorate. In this series, Congress is planning to field popular Kannada actress Divya Spandana, better known by her on-screen name Ramya, this time, and if the reports are to go by, she will be pitted from the Mandya seat.

If her name is finalised by the party, it will mark her return to State politics and is expected to strengthen the foothold of Congress, which is trying hard to snatch back power from BJP, in Mandya region.

Handpicked by none other than Congress leader (then vice-president of the party) Rahul Gandhi, Ramya came as a novice but rose in the ranks quickly with her aggressive and witty approach to the party's social media handles.

From increasing the followers of Rahul Gandhi on various social media handles (for which she doesn't claim credit) to adding that much-needed spark to the party on the virtual space, Ramya has truly justified her growing popularity in the party and her quick success.

However, Ramya resigned from the Congress following the 2019 Loksabha elections poll debacle. Later, there were accusations that she duped the party Rs 8 crore. However, in a series of tweets, the actress-turned-politician refuted the allegations and wrote that she made a big mistake by staying silent on these charges.

Battle for Mandya hots up

The fight for the prestigious Mandya seat is hogging all the limelight these days, with the contest projected to be a cliff-hanger between JDS and Congress. The district is considered a JDS bastion where the party had won in all the seven Assembly segments in the 2018 polls. Its arch-rival Congress is also considerably strong here while the BJP is not considered a force to reckon with.

Meanwhile, BJP is trying hard to make inroads in the district. It had managed to win KR Pet seat in the 2019 by-polls as MLA Narayana Gowda defected from JDS and joined the saffron party. He is now a minister in the incumbent Bommai government.