Ramya, Karnataka's first actress in Lok Sabha

Bangalore, Aug 24 (IANS) Ramya, who was Saturday elected to Lok Sabha from Mandya constituency in Karnataka, is the first female actor from the state to enter parliament.

Fielded by the ruling Congress, she defeated C.S. Puttaraju of Janata Dal-Secular in the bypoll held Aug 21. Mandya is about 80 kms from Bangalore. This was her maiden electoral foray.

Glamorous Ramya is considered the "golden girl" of Kannada cinema as she has given several hits.

She has also acted in a few Tamil and Telugu films.

Born in November 1982, she was named Divya Spandana but adopted Ramya as her screen name. She made her film debut with Kannda movie "Abhi" in 2003.

Occasionally she has been dubbed "queen of controversies" also because of spat with some one or the other from film world.

Ramya joined the Youth Congress in 2011 in Bangalore and had campaigned for the party in the assembly elections held May 5 which the party won defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Tragedy struck her minutes after she filed her nomination papers for the Mandya bypoll Aug 3 as her foster father R.T. Narayan, 77, who had accompanied her, collapsed and passed away soon after in a Mandya hospital.

Narayan was an industrialist and has been her foster father since she was around five years.

Ramya has not spoken about her biological father and not much is also known about him.

She had left the column of father's name in the nomination papers blank, following which a former JD-S legislator M. Srinivas had made adverse comments about her parentage.

He had told a poll meeting in Mandya that the Congress has fielded a candidate who did not know her father's name.

"She is a test tube baby and baby of the Congress party," he had said invoking sharp condemnation not only from the Congress but several of his party colleagues also. He has since apologised.

Karnataka had earlier sent popular Kannada actor M.H. Ambareesh to Lok Sabha, also on Congress ticket. He hails from Mandya and is popular as "He man of Mandya". He led the Ramya's poll campaign.

Ambareesh is now housing minister in the Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.