JD-S chief Deve Gowda attacks Congress over Gandhi family not contesting from Uttar Pradesh

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 18 : Former Prime Minister and JD (S) Chief HD Deve Gowda hit out at the Congress party over its senior leaders not contesting the elections from Amethi and Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, seats once considered traditional strongholds for the grand old party.
JD (S) chief Gowda responded to Rahul Gandhi's claim that the BJP will struggle to win 150 seats in the Lok Sabha elections and said that what Gandhi says does not matter because the country has seen the performance of the Congress party in the last two Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to ANI, Gowda said, "First Congress must get recognition in the Lok Sabha. In the last two elections, in Lok Sabha, Congress was unable to get recognition by getting 55 seats. That is the position of the Indian National Congress."
"Sonia Gandhi is contesting from Rajasthan and became a Rajya Sabha member and Rahul Gandhi is in Kerala, what is the position in Uttar Pradesh? Rahul Gandhi says Deve Gowda is the B team of BJP. He said it a long time back. I accept it."
"What Rahul Gandhi says does not matter. The country has seen the condition of Congress in the last two Lok Sabha elections," said the JD (S) Chief.
When asked how many seats the would NDA win in Karnataka, Deve Gowda said, "All 28 seats will be won by the NDA in Karnataka."
In the previous Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA emerged victorious on 64 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, with the BJP alone securing 62 seats and its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) clinching the remaining two seats.
In contrast, the 'Mahagathbandhan' alliance, consisting of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, and Rashtriya Lok Dal, managed to secure 15 seats, while the Congress could only secure one seat.
A noteworthy instance from the last election includes Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's defeat to BJP's Smriti Irani in Amethi, an old stronghold of the Congress party.
To counter the ruling BJP, the Congress has forged a seat-sharing agreement with the Samajwadi Party, led by Akhilesh Yadav, under the INDIA bloc.
As part of the pre-poll seat-sharing agreement, the Congress will contest 17 seats, while the Samajwadi Party will field candidates in 62 constituencies.
The remaining seat has been allocated to the Trinamool Congress.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will once again contest the Lok Sabha election from the holy city of Varanasi, and the Congress has again tasked Ajay Rai to put up a fight against him.
Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum number of MPs to the Lok Sabha, will witness polling on eight seats in the first phase of the general elections, which is to be held on Friday.
These constituencies are Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina, Moradabad, and Rampur.
Earlier in the 2019 elections, proving all the arithmetic of the SP-BSP 'mahagatbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh wrong, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal(S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats.
The alliance partners, Akhilesh Yadav's party and Mayawati's Party, won 15 seats.
Voting for phases one and two will be held on April 19 and April 26. Next, the state will once again poll in phases three and four on May 7 and May 13.
The Uttar Pradesh electorate will also vote in phases five, six and seven on May 20, May 23 and June 1 respectively. The votes will be counted on June 4.