Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday met with the JDS chief at his New Delhi residence over seat-sharing arrangement in Karnataka, where Deve Gowda put forward his demands for the national polls.
Karnataka has 28 parliamentary seats, out of which 15 are currently held by BJP, while Congress holds 10 and Janata Dal Secular has 2.
After his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, Deve Gowda said: “There are 28 seats in all. I have clinched 10 seats. Final decision will be taken after Rahul Gandhi discusses it with KC Venugopal and Danish Ali.”
AICC's general secretary in Karnataka K C Venugopal and JDS national general secretary Danish Ali were present at the meeting.
“This is the first such discussion between the two parties. Earlier, I had asked for 12 seats. At the meeting, I requested Rahulji to give at least 10 seats to the JDS," he said.
Ali said the seat-sharing arrangement will be announced by March 10.
"At the meeting, the two leaders discussed the prevailing political situation in the country, opposition unity and pre-poll alliance in Karnataka. The Congress would contest two-thirds of the seats and the rest are for the JDS. Seat wise, we have to discuss and finalise. We are going to reach a decision shortly and will announce it by March 10," he said.
Also, there is a growing demand within JD(S) for H D Deve Gowda to contest from Mysore-Kodagu seat. Congress too was seeking to field its candidate from the same seat, which is currently held by BJP's Pratap Simha.