After stopping the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah juggernaut in Karnataka, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) have decided to enter into a pre-poll alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The parties also arrived at an understanding on portfolio-sharing in Karnataka, ending the week-long deadlock, with the Congress acceding to the JD(S)’s demand for the crucial Finance portfolio.
Rahul-Deve Gowda talks
“The Congress and the JD(S) will fight the next Lok Sabha elections as pre-poll allies. The exact distribution of seats will be worked out and announced later,” AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, K.C. Venugopal, announced at a joint press conference here on Friday after the two parties reached an agreement on several contentious issues.
There are 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.
The decision on the pre-poll alliance followed talks between JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and AICC president Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Venugopal said.
“Mr. Gandhi has said this coalition is the need of the hour for the country,” he said.
In the division of Cabinet berths, the Congress, which has got the Bengaluru City Development and Home portfolios, also gave up the Intelligence Department.
The leaders of the two parties had been locked in endless negotiations in Bengaluru and New Delhi over distribution of portfolios over the past week. The deadlock was broken after Mr. Gandhi directed that the Finance portfolio be given to the alliance partner.
To ensure the cohesive and smooth functioning of the government, the two parties have decided to have a common agenda for governance, based on the manifesto of both parties, which would be prepared and presented to the people at the earliest.
Portfolio allocation:
(Congress)
Home, Irrigation, Bengaluru City Development, Industry and Sugar Industry, Health, Revenue/Muzrai, Rural Development, Urban Development, Agriculture, Housing, Medical Education, Social Welfare, Forest and Environment, Labour, Mines and Geology, Women and Child Welfare, Food and Civil Supply, Haj and Wakf and Minority Affairs, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, S&T and ITBT, Youth & Sports and Kannada Culture, Ports and Inland Transport development.
JD(S)
Information, GAD, Intelligence, Planning and Statistics; Finance and Excise; PWD; Power; Cooperation; Tourism; Education (minus Medical Education); Animal Husbandry and Fisheries; Horticulture and Sericulture; small scale industries; Transport; Minor Irrigation
