Bengaluru: JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda yesterday said he was totally satisfied with the seat sharing arrangements with the coalitions partner Congress and asked Rahul Gandhi to cool the reported resentment of some party MLAs over the matter to avoid political tension ahead of the coming Lok Sabha elections.
On 13 March, after weeks of speculation, the Congress and its coalition partner JD(S) finally sealed the seat-sharing deal with Congress getting 20 seats and JD(S) eight in the coming Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka.
Gowda also informed that he had not made up his mind on contesting from North Bengaluru. According to media reports, Gowda said although JDS had demanded 10 seats, it got only eight, considering that Congress was a major party. He further said he did not want any political tension between both the parties and that their main aim was to defeat BJP.
The coalition partners on Wednesday had announced that the JDS would contest from eight Lok Sabha constituencies and Congress from remaining 20 constituencies in Karnataka. The announcement has reportedly sparked resentment among some Congress leaders, who have demanded cancellation of the seat sharing arrangement on the grounds it was impractical and detrimental to the coalition’s electoral prospects.
Gowda said the coalition partners would overcome these ‘minor hiccups’ on or before the March 19 coordination committee meeting and hoped workers of both parties would realise BJP is their main opponent. The meeting would be attended by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Coordination Committee Chairman Siddaramaiah, KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara. The meeting would try to find solutions to minor problems, including the resentment in Congress aspirants and later chalk out dates and places of public rallies, Gowda added.
According to media reports, Gowda had not yet made up his mind whether he would be contesting from North Bengaluru.