2019 LS polls: Congress, JD(S) finalise 20-8 seat sharing deal for Karnataka

Bengaluru: The Congress party and its alliance partner JD(S) on Wednesday reached an agreement on seat-sharing in Karnataka for the upcoming general elections.

Out of 28 seats in Karnataka, the Congress and JD(S) will contest on 20 and 8 seats respectively.

The development comes after JD(S) National Secretary General Danish Ali met with Congress president Rahul Gandhi at Cochin in Kerala.

JD(S) will be contesting from eight parliamentary constituencies namely Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Shimoga, Tumkur, Hasan, Mandya, Bengaluru North and Vijayapura.

Earlier on March 6, HD Deve Gowda, national president of Janata Dal (Secular) and former Prime Minister had claimed that his party has "clinched" 10 seats in Karnataka, while maintaining that final decision will be taken by Rahul Gandhi, president of the coalition partner Congress.

"There are 28 seats in all. I have clinched 10 seats. The final decision will be taken after Rahul Gandhi discusses it with KC Venugopal (of Congress) and Danish Ali (of JD-S)," said Deve Gowda while speaking to media after meeting Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on the issue of seat-sharing in the state for Lok Sabha elections.

Karnataka, with 28 Lok Sabha seats will go for polls in two phases. While 14 seats will go to the polls in phase 2 on April 18, the rest 14 will vote in phase 3 on April 23.