In Karnataka, Congress and JD(S) reach seat-sharing deal for Lok Sabha election
New Delhi: The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) finally reached a seat-sharing agreement in Karnataka for the Lok Sabha election. In the deal between the two partners in Karnataka coalition government, the Congress will contest from 20 seats while the JD(S) will contest from the remaining eight seats in the state, which sends 28 representatives to the Lok Sabha.
The deal has been finalized after talks between the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, and the JD(S) general secretary, Danish Ali, in Kerala’s Kochi.
The decision on Wednesday came as a surprise to many as earlier in the day, JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister HD Devegowda had said his party was still undecided on the number of seats that would be shared between the Congress and the JD(S). He said Rahul Gandhi Gandhi will take a call on this on March 15.
In the May 2018 assembly election in the state, the Congress, despite winning 80 seats against JD(S)’s 37, offered the chief minister’s post to JD(S) HD Kumaraswamy to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party at bay from forming the government. Now, with the Congress getting to contest 20 seats out of 28 in the state without facing a JD(S) candidate is seen as JD(S)’s payback to the Congress.
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Announcement of seat sharing for Karnataka Lok Sabha seats. pic.twitter.com/FvRW7tht8x
The JD(S) will contest from the following Lok Sabha seats:
Bengaluru North, Chikkamagaluru, Hasan, Mandya, Shimoga, Tumkur, Uttara Kannada, and Vijayapura.
The Congress will contest from:
Bagalkot, Belagavi, Bellary, Bengaluru Central, Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru South, Bidar, Chamarajanagar, Chikkaballapur, Chikkodi, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Davanagere, Dharwad, Haveri, Kalaburagi, Kolar, Koppal, Mysore, and Raichur.
The Lok Sabha election starts from April 11. Karnataka will have the election in two phases – on April 18 and April 23 – with 14 seats going to the poll on each phase.
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