Belated dirvorce petition saves BJP in Karnataka

Bangalore, May.7: A divorce petition filed by Kannada film actress Shruthi who is the Chairperson of the Karnataka state Women and Child Welfare organization and the leading campaigner for the ruling BJP in Karnataka has really saved the party in Karnataka which is hoping to improve on its 2004 election success story in the present elections.

BJP had won 18 of the 28 Loksabha constituencies in the 2004 elections. Shruthi who has won two state awards from Karnataka and one award from Tamil Nadu has now filed her divorce papers in the Bangalore family court on Tuesday Evening (5th May) against her husband and Kannada film director S.Mahendar with whom she was married since the year 1998.

After eleven years of married life and working in a few films together, there has been a discontent in the family.

S.Mahendar is a well known film director of the Kannada film industry having directed over twenty films in Kannada. He has directed many films with Shruthi in the lead role including block busters like Karpoorada Gombe and award winning film Gowdaru. He is also in the BJP and had contested from the Kollegal seat in the last Assembly elections in 2008. Both Shruthi and Mahendar had jointly campaigned for the party extensively in the 2008 Assembly elections and 2009 Parliamentary elections. Mahendar was defeated in the Assembly election.

The two phase elections to the Lok Sabha from Karnataka concluded on April 30. Shruthi who is known for her sentimental roles in films has filed her divorce papers on 5th May, thus saving BJP from the embarrassment of having its Chief campaigners pitted against each other in the family court.

Shruthi's campaign for the BJP was a clear hit in the last Assembly elections when BJP made deep inroads in the assembly constituencies in the old Mysore area. It also strengthened the party's position in the Northern Karnataka and Hyderabad Karnataka areas which were once considered as Congress bastions.

Had Shruthi applied for her divorce petition even two or three months earlier, the BJP would not have benefited from her Canvassing, as the actress would not have been able to charm the rural voters of Karnataka who hold negative opinions about marital discontent. Many of the rural voters carry a different perception about divorced wives and view them with lot of suspicion.

Even for Mahendar it should have been a great embarrassment for seeking votes for the BJP, when his own family life was in tatters.