BJP has offered Hassan, Mandya and Kolar to JDS in Karnataka, party insiders confided. JDS, however, is keen on contesting in Chamarajanagar too. BJP is yet to decide on the request. The party is likely to deny seats to 6-7 MPs in the state. One of the changes could be in Bangalore North, represented by Sadananda Gowda.
Speculation continued in Odisha on BJD returning to NDA after 15 years. “We had discussions on all 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 assembly seats. I cannot comment on if there will be an alliance. This is for the central leadership to decide,” BJP MP Jual Oram told journalists after the brainstorming in New Delhi.
Earlier in the day, BJD issued a press release that Odisha will complete ‘100 years of statehood in 2036’ and it had to achieve major milestones before that. “BJD will do everything towards this in the greater interests of people of Odisha and the state,” the statement said. Whether the plan included bid to have a ‘double engine government’ will be known soon.
Discussions in Maharashtra did not make much progress with BJP offering few seats to allies Shiv Sena and NCP. In spite of two meetings home minister Amit Shah had with chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Ajit Pawar, representing the allies, there was no consensus. BJP wants to contest 35 seats and give not more than 8 seats to Shinde and 5 to NCP. ET has learnt that while Shinde initially sought 18 seats and Pawar 10, Shah offered less than 10 seats each.
Shah reportedly told Shinde and Pawar that the seat-sharing formula cannot be based on seats won last time but on winnability. He presented results of multiple surveys to show how each party and candidate would fare in each seat. Shah said the effort was to ensure that the candidate and party best suited be given the seat. BJP’s two allies are, however, not happy with the offer but more rounds of talks were expected to be held. Shiv Sena is looking for 10-12 seats while NCP may settle for 6 seats. Meanwhile, Sena faction’s Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat held a meeting on the broad contours of a seat sharing. According to insiders, UBT will get the maximum seats, 23, Congress 15 and Pawar’s NCP faction would get 10. The three parties have resolved to give one seat each from their quota to Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. VBA, however, has not yet declared as to how many seats it was looking for.