Bengaluru: Former prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda said on Saturday that his party would demand a minimum of 12 seats of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
He told reporters here that the matter of seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections had not been discussed with Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who was busy in New Delhi. A meeting would be held soon. Since there was Congress- JD(S) coalition government in the State, it was his wish to go to the Lok Sabha polls united to take on the BJP. However, the JD(S) had to retain its regional party status despite the possible pre-poll alliance with the Congress party. Many regional parties had shown interest in having a tie up with his party in Maharashtra.
The former Prime Minister said that the national executive committee meeting of the JD(S) would be held on January 29 and 30 to discuss preparations for the Lok Sabha polls. A state executive meeting would take place in Bengaluru on January 3 and 4 for discussion on Lok Sabha elections. Since Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was busy in running the coalition government, he had taken responsibility of looking after the party affairs. The government was committed to waiving off farm loans which had been delayed due to non-cooperation of the nationalised banks. Discussions had been held with the chief Secretary on farm loan waiver, which would happen soon. The process of waiving off loans in cooperative banks had started. But the scheduled banks were not showing interest in sharing details of the total outstanding.
Mr Gowda refused to comment on Public Works Minister H.D. Revanna's attack on the Congress party for stripping Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwar of Home portfolio, and said it was his son’s personal opinion.
