Hassan, Jan 12: JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda has indicated his party is willing to field candidates in less than 10 constituencies and give up the rest to the Congress, its coalition partner at the state level, during this year’s Lok Sabha elections. Some JD(S) leaders had indicated that they would demand at least 12 seats and even threatened to go it alone if their demand was not met.
However, Gowda, indicating the JD(S) would be okay if it gets less than 10 seats to contest, said, “Ours is a small party. We do not know how many seats they will allot us. There are only 28 parliamentary segments in Karnataka.”
The former PM, who spoke to reporters on Friday, said he will hold discussions with KC Venugopal, AICC general-secretary in-charge of Karnataka, and former chief minister and coordination committee president Siddaramaiah and firm up a seat-sharing pact.
He admitted it will not be easy to secure some seats which the JD(S) is eyeing, but which Congress leaders are determined to contest. However, he insisted it will all be sorted out.
Gowda, who had announced that his grandson Prajwal Revanna will contest from Hassan, which he currently represents, indicated that he will contest from another segment. He admitted he is open to contesting the polls. “I will contest but I have not yet decided from where to contest,” he said.
On another note, Gowda called the Union government’s 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections of upper castes as a political move designed to garner votes in the Lok Sabha elections. He also attributed it to “declining fortunes of BJP” in the aftermath of drubbing in the assembly polls in five states.
“Activists have approached the Supreme Court questioning it (reservation). Let’s wait and see,” he stated. Referring to the shunting out of IPS officer Alok Verma as director of CBI, he accused the central government of misusing and weakening autonomous bodies including the CBI.
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