Karnataka elections 2018: This is what hurt Ambareesh who said no to contesting from Mandya
- Congress has fielded P Ravikumar Ganiga from Mandya as Ambareesh has refused to contest
- Ambareesh is said to be hurt after Dinesh Gundu Rao's visit to his house in Bengaluru
- But Congress has still maintained that Ambareesh is the party's star campaigner
FollowCongress leader MLA Ambareesh has at last spilt the beans on what hurt him and why he decided not to contest elections from Mandya, despite being given a ticket by the party. In fact, Ambareesh is so hurt that even after KPCC General Secretary and in-Charge of Karnataka KC Venugopal Rao and CM Siddaramaiah visiting Ambareesh's house and asking for a reconciliation has had no effect on the actor-turned-politician.
Ambareesh accused Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Working President Dinesh Gundu Rao of hurting him. "Dinesh had come home along with the survey report and said that I will lose elections. Will Congress win all the 224 constituencies?" a hurt Ambareesh questioned.
Reacting on the same Dinesh Gundu Rao has said that he is not in a position to guess Ambareesh losing Mandya. "I had told him that delay in campaigning might lead to a problem and did not tell anything about losing elections," clarified Dinesh Gundu Rao. He has also maintained that Ambareesh is still the star campaigner of Congress.
Ambareesh even spoke about Chief Minister Siddaramaiah contesting from the second constituency-Badami.  Reacting on the issue, Ambareesh said that this decision of Siddaramaiah disappointed him. "The man who proudly said that he will contest only from Chamundeshwari should have stood his ground. Instead, he opted for another constituency," he said.
Reacting to the statement of CM Siddaramaiah that popular demand made him contest from Badami, Ambareesh said that seven BJP leaders came to house and requested him to join their party, but he refused to do so. Thus it is clear that Ambareesh is not ready to buy the  'popular demand' theory of Siddaramaiah.
This is a disappointment at a personal level but Ambareesh is said to be hurt about the prediction of him losing Mandya elections.
With Ambareesh saying no to Mandya, Congress has given the ticket to Cheluvarayaswamy, who has filed his nomination today. Even this has led to Ambareesh losing another friend.
Ambareesh's close friend Amaravathi Chandrashekhar was a ticket aspirant from Mandya. But with him alleging that Ambareesh refused to speak on his behalf has hurt Chandrashekhar. Thus, he has said that Ambareesh will remain in Bengaluru and he will be there in Mandya and nothing can bridge the gap.
