A day after the Congress decided against an electoral alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, party chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday began efforts to seal seat-sharing deals in two other states — Karnataka and West Bengal. Rahul drove to JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda’s residence here and had a nearly two-hour meeting to iron out differences. The Congress leader also had a meeting with top Congress leaders from West Bengal to discuss the CPM’s proposal for a seat-sharing pact. With Bengal leaders — including PCC chief Somen Mitra, Pradip Bhattacharya, Sankar Malakar and Abdul Mannan — insisting in one voice that the party should not leave Raiganj and Murshidabad seats to the CPM, sources said Rahul would now speak to CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury to find a way out. Both the seats are now held by the CPM. Talks between the Congress and JD(S) had been inconclusive, but there was some forward movement at Wednesday’s meeting. The JD(S), which had been demanding 12 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, scaled it down to 10. READ | Resolve is to defeat (BJP)… no stumbling blocks in Cong-JD(S) talks: JD(S) general secretary: Kunwar Danish Ali The Karnataka Congress is not willing to give more than seven seats, but the party high command indicated it was willing to walk the extra mile to keep the alliance going. Rahul’s decision to drive to Deve Gowda’s residence was seen as a welcome gesture by the JD(S). “Earlier, I had asked for 12 seats. At the meeting, I requested Rahulji to give at least 10 seats to JD(S),” Deve Gowda said after the meeting, which was also attended by AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal and JD(S) national general secretary Danish Ali. It was decided that Ali and Venugopal would take the discussions forward. The JD(S)’s demand for Chikkaballapur and Tumkur, however, continues to complicate talks. Both are with the Congress now. Chikkaballapur is represented by senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily. “The number of seats. all this does not matter. The common resolve is how best we can bring down the BJP strength in the new Lok Sabha from Karnataka. I will focus on that during my negotiations with the Congress general secretary,” Ali told The Indian Express. The JD(S), which won two seats in 2014, is expected to retain Hassan and Mandya seats, and could fight four seats won by the BJP in 2014 — Mysore, Bangalore North, Shimoga and Bijapur, as well as two seats won by the Congress in 2014 — possibly Raichur in Hyderabad-Karnataka and either Chikaballapur or Tumkur, sources said. Rahul’s meeting with the Bengal leaders was to discuss the CPM’s proposal for a seat-sharing pact. All the Bengal leaders opposed any truck with the Trinamool Congress, and argued against leaving Raiganj and Murshidabad to the CPM. The CPM had earlier this week proposed a mutual contest in sitting seats as a precursor to an electoral understanding. It wants the Congress not to contest Raiganj and Murshidabad, and in return the Left party will not field candidates in Congress’s sitting seats of Baharampur, Jangipur, Maldaha Uttar and Dakshin. —with inputs from Kalaburagi
