Ramya bids goodbye to Mandya politics?

Mandya, Dec 4: Actress-turned-politician Ramya, who is one of the confidantes of Congress supremo Rahul Gandhi, seems to have bid a farewell to Mandya, from where she won the 2013 bypoll to the Lok Sabha.

The former MP, who currently heads the social media team of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), has vacated her rented house in Mandya for a second time, sparking speculations. Her mother Ranjitha is a native of Gopalpura, two km from Mandya city.

Ramya, a resident of Bengaluru, had rented a house on KR Road at Vidyanagar, during the 2013 Lok Sabha bypolls. Following criticism that Ramya was not accessible to people, she held a house-warming ceremony of the house, twice. However, she spent only a few days there. At present, she spends most of her time in Delhi or in foreign nations. On Sunday (Dec 2) night, Ramya had household items transported in two trucks under police protection.

Ramya had been trolled on social media for not voting in three elections since May last — Assembly elections, Municipal Council polls and bypoll to the Lok Sabha. Her name is in the voters’ list in Mandya city.

She became a victim of trolling again, following the death of 30 passengers in a mishap in which a bus plunged into a canal in Pandavapura taluk. On the same night, former minister Ambareesh passed away. The trolling continued as she could not attend the funeral.

She was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2013 byelections, following the resignation of then Mandya MP N Chaluvarayaswamy. However, she lost the 2014 general election to the Lok Sabha, to present district incharge Minister C S Puttaraju.

There were rumours last year that she may be fielded as Congress candidate from Mandya Assembly constituency as the late Ambareesh had distanced himself from the people of the district. Even though Ambareesh declined to contest, Ramya was not considered.

According to sources close to her, she does not see a future in Mandya. “The JD(S) has become too strong for the Congress to handle in Mandya district. The Congress, which heavily depended on Ambareesh, has no bankable leader. Due to the coalition between the Congress and JD(S), chances of Congress contesting the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 are bleak,” said a source.