Sowmya Reddy appointed president of Karnataka Mahila Congress

New Delhi: Former MLA Sowmya Reddy has been appointed as president of Mahila Congress Karnataka unit on Tuesday.

"The Congress president has approved the proposal for the appointment of Sowmya Reddy as President of Mahila Congress Karnataka unit," said Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal in a statement.

Reddy was earlier elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka from Jayanagar in 2018. She, however, lost the state Assembly election, which was held in May 2023 in Karnataka by merely 16 votes. She contested the recent Lok Sabha election from Bangalore South seat and lost to Tejasvi Surya from the BJP.

The daughter of Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, she holds a BE (Chemical Engineering) from R V College of Engineering and MS (Environmental Technology) from New York Institute of Technology).

Reddy, 41-year-old, will replace Pushpa Amarnath, who is on an extension after she was appointed to the post in November 2018.

The Congress state unit recommended Reddy's name saying appointing her as the new Mahila Congress chief would help the party during the impending Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections.

Other leaders, who have lobbied for the post were Kripa Amar Alva, Kamalakshi Rajanna, Aishwarya Mahadev, Nayana Motamma, Veena Kashappanavar and Kavitha Reddy, sources in the Congress said.