Actor-politician writes to EC about ad hoardings, gets okay

Mandya MP Ramya is learnt to have written to the Election Commission requesting it not to remove advertisement hoardings of a footwear manufacturer, for which she is the brand ambassador.

Ramya, in her letter dated March 7, had contended that the agreement between VKC Pride Ltd and herself, to promote the footwear brand was a private agreement and had no connection with the elections.

The Commission which replied to Ramya’s letter on March 8 had stated that there was no requirement to remove the hoardings, since no objections have been filed by other persons regarding the same, informed Srirangapatna tahsildar, M Mallikarjuna.

Hoardings with Ramya as a brand ambassador of VKC Pride footwear are being displayed along the Bangalore-Mysore highway.

Internal bickerings

Ramya, who kickstarted her campaigning in the constituency from Srirangapatna, refused to comment on the criticism levelled against her by some factions of Mandya Congress, here on Monday.

Speaking with press persons about her comments on Ambareesh’s health, she said that she had informed the party workers that about 12 litres of water being removed from Ambareesh’s body, following his illness. She also maintained that her comments about the relationship between Ambareesh, former union minister S M Krishna and her foster father R T Narayan was misconstrued by few. “Whatever I have said is the truth. Is it wrong to speak the truth?” she questioned. She said that opposition for her candidature was from certain individuals who had benefitted from her election.

Commenting on ‘One MP, One India’ programme, she blamed the former deputy commissioner for the failure of the same. A total of Rs five lakh was set aside for the programme and 115 applications were received. “Even before we could finalise it, model code of conduct was implemented,” she added.