3 Seats For HD Deve Gowda’s Party As BJP Seals Karnataka Seat Deal

Bengaluru:

With the clock ticking for Lok Sabha election, the BJP has sealed the seat-sharing deal with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka. The HD Deve Gowda-led party, it is learnt, has managed to secure three seats as part of the seat-sharing arrangement.

The JDS will be contesting Karnataka’s Mandya, Hassan and Kolar seats, sources have said. Also, in Bangalore Rural, Mr Deve Gowda’s son-in-law CN Manjunath will contest on the BJP’s lotus symbol.

The announcement comes days after JDS leaders expressed their concerns to the party leadership after the BJP announced candidates for 20 out of the state’s 28 Lok Sabha seats.

In their meeting with former Prime Minister Deve Gowda and his son and senior JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy, the leaders said that the BJP leaders were not taking them into confidence in their planning for the upcoming election. BJP leaders, they said, were not calling them to any meeting and that this was harmful for the party. Mr Kumaraswamy had then declared that the JDS will announce candidates on its own if they did not get three seats as part of the seat-sharing deal.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP had won 25 out of the state’s 28 seats, with the Congress and the JDS winning one each. Currently, the Congress is in power in the southern state after its thumping state polls win last year.

Out of the three seats the JDS has secured, Kolar is currently held by the BJP, Hassan by the JDS and Mandya by an Independent.

The seat-sharing talks between the JDS and BJP, it is learnt, had hit an impasse over the Kolar seat. The BJP wanted to hold on to the seat because they won it last time, but the JDS had made it clear that it will not settle for two seats.

Amid the deadlock, the ruling Congress had taken a swipe, with Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar saying that the JDS is “embarrassed by its alliance with BJP” and that the regional party does not need an alliance to contest two seats.