In her maiden foray into electoral politics, Sumalatha Ambareesh has won by over 80,000 votes from her late husband Ambareesh's constituency of Mandya in Karnataka. She is likely to end up as the only independent candidate in the new Lok Sabha.

Sumalatha, who entered the poll fray with the BJP's backing, defeated CM HD Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Kumaraswamy of the JD(S). 

Mandya saw a see-saw battle between Sumalatha and actor-turned-politician Nikhil in the early stages before the former established a decisive lead. 

Apart from Sumalatha Ambareesh, three other Sumalathas were also in the fray. All of them received a few thousand votes. On May 19, the exit polls had predicted Sumalatha's victory in Mandya.

In 2014, CS Puttaraju of the JD(S) won the Mandya seat beating current Congress social media head Divya Spandana. Spandana had won the bypoll here in 2013. 
 

#Mandya LS independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh paying a visit to the Chamundeshwari temple in #Mysuru. She is currently leading by over 9000 votes.
@NewIndianXpress @santwana99 pic.twitter.com/vR44sOhpLG

— TNIE@Bengaluru (@XpressBengaluru) May 23, 2019