Bengaluru: “Madam, there are feedback in your Instagram web page asking once you’ll get married,” a reporter requested, virtually sounding shy himself.
“First seek for a boy for me. A Gowda boy. You search. I’m unable to see anybody,” replied Kannada actor and Congress star campaigner for Karnataka Divya Spandana, intermittently glancing on the blushing celebration leaders seated subsequent to her.
Spandana, often known as Ramya, has hit the bottom operating as she campaigns for her celebration within the southern state, which matches to polls 10 Could. That is virtually three years since she give up as head of the Congress’s social media wing, and went incommunicado.
In her over 20-year-long appearing profession, none of Ramya’s achievements has been as beautiful as her shock Lok Sabha entry in 2013 after profitable from Mandya, the Vokkaliga heartland. Regardless of her return as a Congress campaigner now, it’s the actor’s private life that continues to intrigue every one.
However how did she find yourself contesting elections? Talking to ThePrint in Bengaluru on 26 April, a day earlier than she started canvassing, Ramya mentioned, “I didn’t know something about politics, my father was buddies with (former CM) S.M. Krishna.”
She added, “Ambareesh (M.H. Amarnath, former Kannada actor and a former MP from Mandya) and S.M. Krishna couldn’t agree on a candidate from Mandya. Siddaramaiah was in a little bit of a spot (due to that) so he reached out to my father and requested, ‘Why don’t we get Ramya to contest?’ That’s how my title got here up. As a result of I belong to Mandya and the identical group.”
The day she filed her nomination papers and made her electoral debut in Mandya in 2013, her father (R.T. Naryana) succumbed to an enormous coronary heart assault. His dying left the actress distraught and shattered.
Regardless of her grief, Ramya plodded on, coming into the Lok Sabha for a interval of 9 months earlier than the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, making her one of many youngest Members of Parliament.
“I didn’t know (a factor about) the Vidhan Sabha, the Lok Sabha, constituency, the districts…and ten days later, I used to be within the Parliament,” she instructed ThePrint, recalling her whirlwind entry into electoral politics.
Ramya received the Mandya Parliament seat in August 2013 in a Lok Sabha bypoll defeating Janata Dal (S) candidate C.S. Puttaraju by a margin of 55,000 votes. Nevertheless, in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, she misplaced to the identical candidate by a margin of 5,000-odd votes. In 2017, she was elevated to the submit of Congress social media cell head.
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‘Re-entry? Possibly!’
Although she had a brief stint because the Congress social media wing chief, it was underneath Ramya that the celebration grew its urge for food for aggression to tackle the BJP’s on-line military.
Her Twitter submit evaluating Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ‘hen droppings’ in 2018 raked up a storm, incomes her a life’s value of devoted trolling. Even Rahul Gandhi reportedly pulled her up for this whereas BJP MPs, MLAs, leaders and supporters attacked her on-line.
In March this 12 months, firebrand BJP MP Pratap Simha posted an image with Ramya, solely to be trolled for being star-struck. “Politically, I nonetheless criticise her even at this time. However I actually like her appearing,” mentioned Simha in response to at least one such submit.
As for her re-entry into the political battlefield, Ramya mentioned it was Congress basic secretary (organisation) Ok.C. Venugopal who had reached out, asking if she could be their star campaigner.
“I took a break in 2019 for private points after which Covid occurred. Now I’ve my very own manufacturing home and am making a comeback with a movie. We begin taking pictures in July. Within the meantime, the star campaigning gig got here round,” she added.
In her new avatar, Ramya seems to be rejuvenated, and extra sorted in her priorities. “You don’t need to comply with the trail of these forward of you, you’ll be able to change it. Right this moment, the occasions have modified, the way in which folks take a look at ladies in politics has modified, So I wish to carve my very own area of interest and set new requirements,” she instructed ThePrint.
However her film, she insisted, isn’t the gateway for her re-entry into the political fray because it won’t be launched earlier than the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Whereas non-committal on her most well-liked seat as “that’s as much as the celebration”, she finds an organisational function extra interesting. Coaxed about her selection of a seat, or the potential for a ticket for the 2024 contest, she mentioned, “Possibly! Who is aware of!”
There are numerous politicians in Karnataka — some even from the identical celebration — who don’t see eye-to-eye in public, however Ramya could also be an exception. “I did get requested (to contest) this election as nicely — not simply by the Congress however by the BJP as nicely. However I don’t assume I can tackle that duty proper now. However we’ll see,” she instructed ThePrint.
Did she contemplate the choice of becoming a member of the BJP when the provide got here? “No manner. How might I, after Rahulji did a lot for me after I was going by way of such a tough interval in life?” she was fast to answer.
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Reel to actual politics
Karnataka has a restricted historical past of electing movie personalities as political leaders in comparison with the neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the place cinema personalities similar to J. Jayalalithaa, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) and N.T. Rama Rao loved a ‘god-like’ standing.
Nevertheless, Kannada film stars have been pressured to take up politics and events do money in on their recognition as crowd-pullers.
Within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when actress Sumalatha visited villages as a part of her marketing campaign as an impartial from Mandya, the query she was most requested was if superstars D-Boss (Darshan Thoogudeepa) and Yash, who had campaigned for her, would come once more to the district.
Sumalatha has scores of movies in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada to her credit score and her late husband, Ambareesh, was an iconic actor with a chequered political historical past.
“In Karnataka, not a lot political weightage is given to actors,” a Bengaluru-based political analyst instructed ThePrint, requesting anonymity.
The analyst recalled a selected incident when Kannada film icon, Dr. Rajkumar, was on the peak of his profession within the early Seventies. He went on to develop into the face of the Kannada agitation (for unification of the state) and was requested to contest the meeting elections. Rajkumar and his household had been hesitant to enter politics although his elder son, Shivarajkumar, is married to the daughter of then chief minister, S. Bangarappa.
“It was mentioned that Congress’s Devaraj Urs, additionally the state’s longest-serving CM, instructed Rajkumar to maintain his distance from politics. A short time later, in 1974, Rajkumar launched a film referred to as Sampathige Saval (Difficult wealth/authority). Although there’s nothing to show that the film was a response to what Urs allegedly mentioned to Rajkumar, the timing fuelled the hypothesis,” the analyst added.
There are a number of different actors — Ananth Nag, Umashree, B.C. Patil, Madhu Bangarappa, to call a couple of — who’ve had restricted success as politicians.
Actor Kichcha Sudeep was roped in by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to marketing campaign for the BJP for the approaching meeting elections, opening the floodgates of on-line hate towards the actor and his selection of affiliation.
Rajkumar’s son Shivarajkumar and his spouse, Geetha, are campaigning for the Congress.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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