Sumalatha, wife of late Kannada actor Ambarish, has finally announced her decision to contest from the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency as an independent candidate.

With this, curtains are down over speculation that she may join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the Congress declined to support her candidature. Now, she is expected to take on Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil, who is set to contest as the Janata Dal Secular (JD[S]) candidate.

On Monday, she announced her decision to contest as an independent and will be filing her nominations in Mandya on March 20. The Mandya Lok Sabha constituency is likely to see BJP waging a proxy war by supporting Sumalatha as an independent candidate.