Bengaluru: Making it clear that the party was not going with a begging bowl to it on seat sharing for the coming Lok Sabha poll, the Janata Dal (S) on Thursday stuck to its demand for 12 constituencies, warning the Congress not to take it for granted.
Addressing the JD(S) party workers’ meeting here, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was categorical about contesting from 12 LS constituencies in the coming poll. “When JD(S) won 16 LS seats, Mr Deve Gowda (his father and JDS supremo) became Prime Minister. If you ensure the party's victory in 12 to14 LS seats everyone, including Prime Minister Modi will be in front of Mr Gowda's house,”' he told the workers.
Warning the Congress against mistreating its coalition partner, Mr Deve Gowda, for his part, lamented that Mr Kumaraswamy had many constraints in running the government.
"Even where the loan waiver scheme was concerned, there was a pre-condition that all the programmes of the previous government should be continued. But the Congress should remember that when Mr Kumaraswamy took over as Chief Minister, heads of 21 regional parties came down to Bengaluru and mind how it treats its coalition partner," he asserted.
Mr Gowda became tearful while speaking of Mr Kumaraswamy swearing on his son to waive off farm loans. "He was making the promise to the people who had elected the JD(S) to 38 assembly seats," he added. Senior party leaders like P G R Sindhia, Y S V Datta and Basavaraj Horatti too warned the Congress not to take JD(S) for granted just because it was the senior partner in the coalition. JD(S) state president, H Vishwanath and Mr Horatti also urged the CM to make nominations to boards and corporations to satisfy party leaders, who were not able to make it to the Cabinet.
