This was confirmed by BJP General Secretary and incharge of Karnataka affairs Radhamohan Agarwal while talking to reporters here on Saturday.

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In fact, this particular seat had generated a lot of interest because of the tussle between Sumalatha and former CM and JDS leader H.D.Kumaraswamy.  The BJP-JDS alliance had been pushing for the seat, even as Sumalatha was bent on keeping it after she had conquered this seat single-handed as an independent candidate.

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The JDS had won all eight seats in the district in 2018 Assembly polls. However, in the 2019 parliamentary polls, the united candidate of the JDS and Congress, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of the then chief minister Kumaraswamy, lost to Sumalatha by more than 1.25 lakh votes.

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Before the JDS approached the BJP for a pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha polls, Sumalatha had extended full support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as to the BJP, and announced of facing the 2024 Lok Sabha on the BJP ticket. But she was surprised when the BJP-JDS stitched up the alliance.

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The alliance partner demanded only three seats, Hassan, Mandya and Kolar. But the BJP leaders, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President J.P.Nadda had personally spoken to her and promised the ticket for Mandya. But Kumaraswamy also wanted the Mandya seat in order to salvage the pride of the JDS in the Vokkaliga stronghold.

Till Friday, Sumalatha was confident of getting the Mandya seat as promised by Nadda and Shah last week when she met and discussed the issue with them. She had returned to Bengaluru on an optimistic note of getting the Mandya seat.

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In the meantime, as Kumaraswamy warned of breaking the alliance if his party was not given the Mandya seat, the BJP leaders offered the Chikballapur seat to Sumalatha which she rejected flately. She wanted the Mandya seat because of her late husband's emotional attachment with the district. Her husband, M.H.Ambareesh belonged to Doddarasinakere in Maddur taluk.

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The BJP leaders were in a fix because of the tussle between Sumalatha and JDS.  In the end, the BJP leaders caved in to the pressure of the JDS leaders, and conceded three seats including Mandya.

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Now, Sumalatha has been left in the lurch as the Congress party has already announced the candidate for Mandya. She has called a meeting of her supporters and well-wishers to chalk out the next course of action which included contesting as an independent candidate. She may play the victim card and try to win the hearts of Mandya voters for the second time.

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Meanwhile, the BJP is planning to request former CMs, S.M.Krishna and B.S.Yediyurappa to convince her not to take such drastic steps which would affect the prospects of the alliance candidate.