BENGALURU: Former Union minister M. Veerappa Moily and two other Members of Parliament could well be forced to give up their constituencies with the Congress and JD (S) agreeing in principle to forge a 18-10 seat-sharing agreement ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections.
Interestingly, JD (S) leaders have decided to earmark one seat, Chamarajnagar, for the BSP out of their quota of ten constituencies. The seat-sharing formula was arrived at, following a telephonic conversation between Congress president Rahul Gandhi and CM H.D. Kumaraswamy. This was followed by Mr Kumaraswamy's endorsement of Mr Rahul Gandhi's candidature for the PM’s post, according to sources in JD (S).
Sources said the Congress has agreed to give up Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru and Chamarajnagar, all part of Old Mysore region, and represented by Mr Veerappa Moily, Mr Mudduhanume Gowda and Mr Druvanarayan respectively. JD (S) leaders, however, did not press for Kolar constituency, represented by former Union minister K H Muniyappa.
Besides, the fate of water resources minister D K Shivakumar's younger brother D K Suresh, elected to Lok Sabha from Bengaluru (Rural), was not clear. He is likely to retain his seat as Mr Shivakumar has established strong bonds of friendship with Mr Kumaraswamy and seems set to back the Chief Minister's wife Mrs Anita Kumaraswamy in the forthcoming Assembly by-poll in Ramanagar constituency.
In an interesting development, party patriarch H D Deve Gowda, who had announced his retirement from electoral politics, seems set to contest again from his home turf, Hassan, in 2019 while his grandson and public works minister H D Revanna's son Prajwal Revanna is nlikely to enter the fray as party nominee in Mysuru parliamentary constituency.
