JD(S) settles for 8 in seat-sharing deal with Congress

Bengaluru: After weeks of parleys, Congress and JD(S) agreed on seat sharing in Karnataka with the latter scaling down its expectations and settling for eight of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka. The JD(S) had initially sought 12 seats.

The JD(S) will contest in Hassan, Mandya, Bengaluru North, Tumakuru, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada and Vijayapura. In the remaining 20 constituencies, it will back the Congress candidates.

With this arrangement, Congress will sacrifice Tumakuru, represented by SP Muddhanume Gowda. Incidentally, Gowda was with JD(S) till 2014 and joined Congress during the last general elections.

For JD(S), despite a gain of two possible seats with a favourable base in Tumakuru and Bengaluru North, it appears to be a compromise by conceding Mysuru and Chikkaballapura constituencies where the regional party has a substantial votebank.

The compromise by JD(S) gives former Union minister and Congress sitting MP M Veerappa Moily a new lease of life after he had retained the Chikkabballapura seat in 2014 by a narrow margin.The seat-sharing formula also gives regional party supremo and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda two options of either contesting from Bengaluru North or Tumakuru, after having conceded the party bastions of Mandya and Hassan to grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna.

In another interesting development under this pact, JD(S) has also scored a single seat of Vijayapura from North Karnataka. Vijayapura district has seen two MLAs from JD(S) winning the 2018 elections, giving it a boost in the region.

The Congress has ceded Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada, the two bastions of BJP stalwarts — saffron party president BS Yeddyurappa and Union minister Anantkumar Hegde.

Earlier in the day, JD(S) general secretary K Danish Ali met AICC president Rahul Gandhi and finalised seat-sharing mechanism after telephonic discussions with Deve Gowda.