Bengaluru: In a sign that the Congress was not going to allow differences with its coalition partner Janata Dal(S) to affect the Grand Old party's strategy to knit together pre-poll pacts with regional outfits as part of a mahagatbandan with like-minded allies, the Congress announced a seat sharing agreement with JD (S), with the party allocating eight of the 28 Lok Sabha seats to its coalition partner, on Wednesday.
A decision on the 20:8 formula was arrived at, during a much awaited meeting between Congress president Rahul Gandhi and JD (S) secretary general Danish Ali in Kochi at the end of two weeks of hard bargaining by leaders of both parties. The JD (S) tweeted about constituencies from where its candidates would enter the fray: Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Hassan, Mandya, Bengaluru (North) and Vijayapura, while KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao's tweet read: "@INCIndia @JanataDal_S seat sharing for Karnataka #LokSabhaPolls2019 is confirmed. 20 for Congress and 8 for JDS." Wednesday night's announcement meant that JD (S) president H D Deve Gowda may tread the untested waters of Tumakuru instead of Mysuru as speculated earlier even as he formally announced the launch of both his grandsons Prajwal Revanna and Nikhil Kumaraswamy into the political fray, with Prajwal contesting from Hassan - which Mr Gowda has won five times consecutively- and Nikhil from Mandya.
The other JD (S) candidates are Madhu Bangarappa (Shivamogga) and son of former JD (S) MLA R K Rathod (Vijayapura), giving the leaders the task of identifying nominees for Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, and Bengaluru (North).
Earlier, the party had decided to field a close associate of Rajya Sabha MP Mr Kupendra Reddy for Bengaluru (North).
Mr Gowda, who was contemplating contesting from Bengaluru (North) earlier, changed his mind and had eyed either Mysuru or Tumakuru. He did zero in on Mysuru and decided to give his party ticket to Congress MP Mr Muddu Hanumegowda or party general secretary Mr Suresh Babu. However with Congress refusing to part with Mysuru, the names of candidates for both Bengaluru (North) and Tumakuru could change.
Later in the day, Mr Deve Gowda chaired a meeting of leaders of all eight parliamentary segments to assign responsibilities and to work for the success of his party candidates.
While Mandya would be handled by three ministers , C S Puttaraju, Sa Ra Mahesh and D C Thammanna, small scale industries minister, Srinivas, party general secretary, Suresh Babu and Sira MLA, Sathyanarayan would take charge of party issue in Tumakuru. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy would oversee preparations in Shivamogga while Mr Mr Deve Gowda would retain charge of his home turf, Hassan along with his son and PWD minister, H D Revanna. Two ministers, Managuli and Venkatarao Nadagouda would handle party issues in Vijayapura, sources in JD (S) told Deccan Chronicle.
