Mandya: The Mandya seat sharing issue in the coming Lok Sabha elections has become a tougher puzzle between the Congress and Janata Dal (S) parties.

Even though the state Congress leaders have agreed to forgo the Mandya Lok Sabha Constituency for JDS, Sumalatha has not given up. She is now trying to get the Lok Sabha ticket directly from the high command by using pressure tactics. She has roped in Kamal Hassan and Chiranjeevi to use their influence on the high command to allot her the Mandya Lok Sabha seat.

Chiranjeevi has contacted K C Venugopal, Congress (state in-charge) and Kamal Hassan has urged Rahul Gandhi to treat this as a special case and allot the Mandya LS seat to Sumalatha.

K C Venugopal discussed this in a screening committee meeting and asked for Siddaramaiha’s inputs. However, Siddaramaiah refused to discuss the matter stating that the Mandya seat had already been given away to JDS and any change in this would affect the coalition government.

The High Command has asked the state Congress leaders to talk to Sumalatha regarding the issue.