The JD(S) has entered into an alliance with the BJP for the Lok Sabha 2024 polls. It will be contesting in four of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.
CM Siddaramaiah says JD (S) B team of BJP. (X)
Questioning the secular credentials of the JD(S), Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said it lacked any ideology and would do anything for the sake of power.
The chief minister was referring to the JD(S) tie-up with the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The JD(S) would be contesting in four Parliament seats, out of Karnataka’s 28.
Siddaramaiah also said his statement calling the JD(S) the “B Team” of the BJP has been proved correct.
“I had called the JD(S) the BJP’s B-Team, and it is proven now. The JD(S) people used to get angry at me when I called them the B-Team. Also, they have named themselves as Secular—Janata Dal (Secular)— but joined hands with the communal party,” Siddaramaiah said.
Speaking to reporters in Hubballi, the Congress leader said, “Deve Gowda used to say that JD(S) will not have an understanding with any party, but now has made GT Devegowda (JDS coordination committee chief and MLA) say that the party is joining hands with the BJP for its survival. It proves that the party doesn’t have any ideology and that for the sake of power, it will do anything.”
Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa made the crucial announcement regarding the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on Friday, 8 September.
The Lingayat strongman said the BJP was forming an alliance with the JD(S) in Karnataka.
“The BJP will have an understanding with former prime minister HD Deve Gowda-led JD(S) for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Yediyurappa said.
Yediyurappa made the announcement after Gowda held talks with the BJP’s central leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party national president JP Nadda in Delhi on 7 September.
The former prime minister flew to the national capital on Thursday on the Union government’s invitation to the G20 Summit. In the meantime, he is said to have held talks with the BJP about fighting the general elections together in Karnataka.
It may be noted that this would be the second successive parliament elections where the JD(S) is contesting by forming a coalition with national parties. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the regional party had joined hands with the Congress in the state.
“As part of the poll understanding, the JD(S) will contest in four Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka,” Yediyurappa told reporters.
“The BJP and JD(S) will have an understanding. Union Minister Amit Shah has agreed to give four Lok Sabha seats to the JD(S),” he said.
He further said: “This has given us great strength and this will help us in winning 25 or 26 Lok Sabha seats together.”
The JD(S) is likely to contest in Hassan, Tumakuru, Chamarajanagar, and Mandya Lok Sabha seats, sources told South First.
The BJP swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka by winning 25 seats, while an independent (Sumalatha Ambareesh from Mandya) backed by it won one seat. The Congress and JD(S) won one seat each.
Political circles have been abuzz with a possible JD(S)-BJP alliance since June this year when Gowda first dropped hints of being open to the idea at a press conference.
Earlier, Gowda, hinting at a possible alliance with the BJP, had said that every political party in the country were, one way or the other, connected with the saffron party.
He said that he wasn’t sure which party was communal and insisted that every single party in India has had associations with the BJP — directly or indirectly.
Gowda, now 91, was addressing his first press conference after the results of the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls — which were announced on 13 May.
Pointing to the presence of strong regional parties in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, the JD(S) supremo called on cadres to strive towards strengthening and nurturing the party by giving more strength to youth in Karnataka.
As political temperatures rise, all eyes will be on how this strategic partnership unfolds in the coming months, with the potential to reshape the electoral landscape in Karnataka.
(With PTI inputs)
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