‘I have clinched 10 LS seats,’ says Deve Gowda after talks with Rahul Gandhi

The Janata Dal (S) will contest 10 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, its leader and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Wedensday after talks with Congress president Rahul Gandhi, ANI reported. Gandhi met Gowda at his residence in Delhi to discuss seat-sharing in Karnataka for the Lok Sabha elections. “I have clinched 10 seats. Final decision will be taken after Rahul Gandhi discusses it with KC Venugopal and Danish Ali,” ANI quoted him as saying. Gowda did not mention the name of the ten constituencies . On Monday, the Congress-JD(S) coordination committee meeting in Bengaluru chaired by former chief minister Siddaramaiah to discuss the Lok Sabha seat-sharing had ended in a stalemate. The two parties run a coalition government in Karnataka which has often come under strain. Disagreements between the alliance partners in Karnataka over seat sharing had so far prevented the Congress and the JD (S) from deciding on the number of seats. The seat distribution has been contentious particularly in the state’s southern Old Mysuru region, where the two parties have been direct rivals. The Congress is willing to give Mandya and Hassan seats in the region to the JD (S) as it did not win even a single assembly seat in these areas in 2018 assembly elections. Source: Hindustan Times