Actor-turned-politician Sumalatha Ambareesh on Friday joined the saffron party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The independent MP from Karnataka’s Mandya was welcomed by party leader B S Yediyurappa, state president B Y Vijayendra, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly R Ashoka, national general secretary in-charge of elections in Karnataka Radha Mohan Das Agarwal and former chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda.

Speaking at the party headquarters in Bengaluru, Sumalatha said though she was an independent MP, the BJP government at the Centre gave grants worth Rs 4,000 crore to the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency.

In a post on ‘X’ on Thursday, she said she would support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the development of Mandya and to see Narendra Modi becoming the prime minister again.

“Accordingly, I am officially joining the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of BJP leaders on Friday April 5, 2024 at 11.30 am at the Bharatiya Janata Party office in Bengaluru,” she said.

The 60-year-old leader had emerged victorious by defeating JD(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. She had on Wednesday announced her decision to withdraw from the polls after the BJP conceded the Mandya seat to its alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular), opting instead to join the BJP.

The seat was previously represented by her late husband late film star M H Ambareesh.

JD(S) state president and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy is now the joint candidate from Mandya, having sought Sumalatha’s cooperation in the polls.

Entering politics in 2019 after being denied a ticket by the Congress, Sumalatha secured victory in the polls riding on the wave of sympathy following her husband’s passing. Ambareesh, a prominent figure in Mandya district, had served as MP, MLA, and minister in Karnataka and at the Centre.

As an independent candidate, Sumalatha had won the seat in 2019 by defeating Nikhil Kumaraswamy by a margin of 1,25,876 votes.

The Janata Dal (Secular) joined the NDA last year. As part of the seat-sharing arrangement in Karnataka, the BJP would contest in 25 constituencies and the JD(S) the remaining three, including Mandya, from where Kumaraswamy has entered the fray.