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A file photo of BJP veteran B.S. Yediyurappa with JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Clearing the air over intense political speculation in Karnataka, BJP Parliamentary Board member and veteran leader B.S. Yediyurappa confirmed that the BJP will forge a pre-poll alliance with Janata Dal (S) for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“BJP and JD(S) are about to forge an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has agreed to give four seats to the JD(S),” Mr. Yediyurappa told mediapersons in Bengaluru on September 8. He expects the alliance to win 25 to 26 Lok Sabha seats of the total 28 in Karnataka.
‘Will boost prospects of BJP’
BJP State president Nalin Kumar Kateel told reporters in Mangaluru expressed confidence that the alliance would boost the party’s poll prospects. Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai too said that such an alliance was ‘necessary now’.
Both the parties worked in co-ordination during the recent legislature session of the Karnataka Assembly.
The JD(S) is yet to make any statement on the proposed alliance. State BJP leaders too are not in the know of these developments, as the discussions are believed to be happening at the level of the BJP high command.
Political circles in Karnataka are speculating that JD(S) supremo and former prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda met Mr. Shah in Delhi recently. It is also being said that former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy had been approached in this regard by the BJP soon after the Assembly elections in May 2023.
State leaders in the dark as talks at national level
There is no clarity on the constituencies that are being offered to the JD(S). BJP sources believe that the JD(S) may be offered Bengaluru Rural, Kolar, Chikkaballapura and Hassan seats. A BJP State functionary said the party is unlikely to give Mandya to JD(S). Mandya is represented by Sumalata Ambareesh who won the seat in 2019 as an independent, but extended support to the BJP before the May 2023 Assembly elections.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sought to downplay the proposed alliance between the opposition parties in Karnataka. “We are not bothered who will enter into an alliance and who will fight on their own. We will seek votes from people. People are in our favour, and they will vote for us,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and party campaign committee convenor M. B. Patil said, despite the proposal alliance of BJP and JD(S), the Congress would win a minimum of 20 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.
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