Don’t give in to JD(S) pressure on seat sharing, state leaders tell Cong high command

Bengaluru: A day after AICC president Rahul Gandhi and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda failed to hammer out a decision on seat-sharing in Karnataka for the Lok Sabha polls despite a lengthy meeting in New Delhi, the State Congress Election Committee, which met here on Thursday, urged the party high command not to succumb to pressure tactics of the alliance partner.
Sources say a majority of leaders who attended the meeting were upset with the demand of the JD(S) for 10 seats including some held by the Congress.Leaders cautioned the high command against giving away more seats that necessary from the Old-Mysuru region.
“We are forging an alliance to win as many seats as possible to stop the BJP from returning to power at the Centre and not to weaken our own party. JD(S) leaders should understand this and demand only those seats where they stand a chance of winning,” was the general opinion, a Congress leader said.
At the meeting, members shortlisted aspirants for all but 13 seats which are currently held by the two parties.
“We have shortlisted three to five candidates for each of the 15 Lok Sabha seats,” KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao told reporters. “This list will be scrutinised by the AICC screening committee at a meeting on March 11 in New Delhi after which the high command will take a final decision.”
To a question, he said Muslim leaders of the party have asked for candidates from the community to be fielded in Bidar, Bengaluru Central and Haveri districts. KPCC working president Eshwar Khadre, whose name is also doing rounds for Bidar seat, said seat-sharing between the Congress and JD(S) will be finalized before March 10.
List of Congress probables
Bidar: Eshwar Khandre, CM Ibrahim, Vijay Singh
Bagalkot: Bayakka Meti, Veena Kashappanavar, Ajaykumar Saranaik
Vijayapura: Raju Alaguru, Prakash Rathod, Kanta Naik, Shivaraj Tangadagi
Koppal: Basanagouda Badarli, Basavaraj Hitnal, Virupakshappa, Basavaraj Rayaraddi.
Belagavi: Anjali Nimbalkar, Channaraj Hebbalkar, Nagaraj Yadav, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Vivekrao Patil
Dharwad: Vinay Kulkarni, Shakhir Sanadi, Veeranna Mattikatti
Haveri: Basavaraj Shivannavar, Saleem Ahmed, D R Patil
Davanagere: SS Mallikarjun
Uttara Kannada: Prashanth Deshpande, Nivedit Alva, Bheemanna Naik
Udupi-Chikkamagaluru: Arathi Krishna, Pramod Madhwaraj, BK Hariprasad
Mangaluru: Ramanath Rai, Ivan D’Souza, Moideen Bava
Bengaluru Central: Rizwan Arshad, BK Hariprasad, R Roshan Baig, HT Sangliana
Bengaluru South: Priya Krishna
Bengaluru North: C Narayanswamy, MR Seetharam, BL Shankar, R Rajkumar, BV Seetharam
Mysuru: CH Vijayshankar, Suraj Hegde
If situation demands, former chief minister Siddaramaiah will contest from Koppal or Mysuru.