Amidst a huge crowd of supporters and party workers, Ramya, MP and Congress candidate from Mandya, filed her papers on Wednesday, which was the last day to submit nominations.
The form was submitted in her original name, Divya Spandana, before Returning Officer and Deputy Commissioner M.N. Ajay Nagabhushan. With this, Mandya has become a battleground with Ms. Ramya on one side and JD(S) candidate C.S. Puttaraju on the other. This is not the first time they have locked horns; Ms. Ramya successfully beat Mr. Puttaraju in the byelections to the constituency held last year.
‘Rahukala’Initially, Ms. Ramya had planned to file papers at 10 a.m.; however, by the time she reached the Deputy Commissioner’s office, it was 12.10 p.m.
She had to postpone her plans further, because of ‘Rahukala’, till 1.30 p.m. and completed the process by 1.55 p.m. Among those present were former MP G. Madegowda; MLA P.M. Narendraswamy; Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) member M.H. Amarnath and local Congress leader Chandrashekar.
Earlier in the day, she visited Sri Kalikamba temple here and performed special puja. Later, she met KPCC president G. Parameshwara and other leaders at a hotel on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, after which she was escorted to the Deputy Commissioner’s office by a mammoth rally.
Mr. Parameshwara, KPCC members Ravindra Srikantaiah and Dadagalapura Shivanna, former MLA L.R. Shivaramegowda, and a host of local leaders, party workers and folk artistes accompanied the young MP during the rally.
Former Minister and Mandya District Congress Committee president M.S. Atmananda and other leaders welcomed their candidate at the Deputy Commissioner’s office. Later, Public Works Minister H.C. Mahadevappa, former minister Santosh Lad, Mandya City Municipal Council president B. Siddaraju, councillor M. Mahesh and others also visited the office.
VictoryA confident Ramya told The Hindu that she had been working sincerely for the district’s development after winning the byelections last year. “I visited nearly 1,000 villages since August last year and tried to solve their problems. I have knowledge about the problems of the constituency and have brought several developmental projects,” she said.
Ms. Ramya appealed to the voters to support her as they did in the byelections.
Although the nomination filing procedure was delayed by nearly three-hours, hundreds of Congress workers and fans waited outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office despite the scorching sun. The MP, before leaving the office, met people in the crowd and shook hands with the public.
