Bengaluru: The joint coordination committee meeting of the coalition government on Monday failed to arrive at a consensus on seat sharing between the Congress and Janata Dal(Secular) for the coming Lok Sabha poll.
The meeting hit several roadblocks with the JD(S) sticking to its 12 seats demand and the Congress offering it only nine of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. With neither party willing to give in, it was decided to hold another round of talks later this week. The list agreed upon by the local leaders of both parties will then be forwarded to Congress president, Rahul Gandhi and JD(S) supremo, H D Deve Gowda for their approval.
Monday’s meeting at the Kumara Krupa guest house was attended by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy , JD(S) national general secretary, Danish Ali , AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka affairs, K C Venugopal, former Chief Minister and CLP leader, Siddaramaiah, and deputy chief minister, Dr G Parameshwar. Beginning at around 10:30 am, it ended within 45 minutes.
While the Congress didn’t want to give more than nine seats to its coalition partner as its influence is restricted to only South Karnataka districts and their sizeable Vokkaliga population, Mr Ali insisted on 12.
After the meeting, Mr Siddaramaiah told reporters that the seat sharing process would be completed before March 10.
“Leaders of both parties had a detailed discussion on all the LS constituencies. The list of 12 seats given by the JD(S) was also discussed. While we are offering nine seats to the JDS, they want 12, including some of them won by the Congress in the 2014 LS poll. There is also a demand within the party for both Mandya and Hassan seats. Since there is much to discuss another meeting will take place this week and all confusion sorted out. The Congress-JD(S) alliance will win at least 20 seats in the state,” he declared.
On the Chief Minister announcing his party candidates for Mandya and Shivamogga seats before finalisation of the deal, Mr Siddaramaiah said the announcement needed the approval of the joint coordination committee meeting .
Mr Ali said the next step would be decided in consultation with party supremo , H D Deve Gowda. Going by sources, the pre-poll alliance is mainly dependent on the Congress’ stand on Chikkaballapura and Tumakuru as the JD(S) wants these two seats along with Mandya and Hassan.
