The coordination committee of Congress and JD(S) has failed to reach an agreement on seat-sharing for 2019 Lok Sabha election even in the fourth meeting convened on Monday. The reluctance on the number of seats to be shared with each other is the main of point contention for both parties.
According to reports, the meeting was attended by former Congress Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, Former CM and coalition coordination chairman Siddaramaiah and national general secretary of JD(S) Danish Ali, along with other leaders. The meeting lasted for 45 minutes.
In the meeting, JD(S) demanded 12 seats from the coalition including Tumakuru and Chikkaballapur seat, which currently have Congress MPs. Other than this CM Kumaraswamy wants Mandya Lok Sabha seat, considered bastion by party, for his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy, as per reports, along with Hassan.
On the other hand, the Congress party does not want to give its alliance partner more than 9 seats, as JD(S) is only believed to have influence in South Karnataka districts, which have huge Vokkaliga community presence.
The deadlock is scheduled to be discussed in the next meeting, in the coming week. Subsequently, the listings of both the parties are expected to be presented to Congress President Rahul Gandhi and JD(S) supremo HD Devegowda. A meeting between both leaders is also expected.
“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.” Siddaramaiah was quoted by reports. He also assured that the seat-sharing agreement will be reached by 10th March.
This is not the first time that JD(S) and Congress are trying to maintain the coalition they had forged after the last assembly elections had thrown a hung house. In December, last year, JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda had warned Congress that, if JD(S) does not get its desired number of seats, they will consider going solo in the 2019 general elections.
