In yet another twist to the coalition politics, the JD(S) has returned the Bangalore North seat back to the Congress, a move which comes as a surprise ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress made an announcement to this effect, an hour past midnight, Sunday.
AICC General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal took to Twitter to thank the JD(S) for returning the seat.
"@INCIndia is thankful to Shri H D Deve Gowda ji and the JD(S) for their kind gesture of giving back the Bengaluru North Lok Sabha seat to the Congress. Together, let us reclaim democracy," read his tweet.
Bangalore North was among the constituencies that JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda was considering his candidature from. However, after much deliberation, he decided to contest from the Tumkur Lok Sabha constituency. This left his party with no other suitable candidate who could be fielded from Bangalore North.
With no option in sight, it has now decided to return the seat the Congress.
After long drawn negotiations, the ruling partners had sealed a 20-8 deal recently, with the Congress getting 20 seats. The regional, which had initially demanded 12 seats, had however settled for eight seats.
While the JD(S) seemed content with the seats allotted to it, the Congress has been facing difficulty in pacifying its local leaders, who have taken strong exception to its state leaders ceding key constituencies to the regional party.
Bangalore North is held by Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda. The BJP has renominated to contest from the constituency.