The alliance between JD(S) and BJP ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections is close to being formalised as supremo of the regional party H.D. Deve Gowda and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy are in New Delhi to hold discussions with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda.
Many members of the Gowda clan, including elder son H.D. Revanna and grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna held preliminary discussion at the official residence of Mr. Deve Gowda. More leaders are likely to arrive in Delhi on Friday. Mr. Deve Gowda on Thursday also met Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
Prior to leaving from Bengaluru to Delhi on Friday morning, Mr. Kumaraswamy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Deve Gowda may also hold talks, if required. He hinted that a more concrete picture will emerge by Friday.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said there has been no discussion on seat sharing between both parties till now. He said discussion will revolve around the current situation in all 28 (Lok Sabha) seats, what was the situation in the earlier election and what is the situation after the 2023 Assembly polls.
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The BJP had swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka, winning 25 seats, while an Independent (Sumalatha Ambareesh from Mandya) backed by the party also won. The Congress and JD(S) won one seat each. In the elections to the 224-member Assembly held in May 2023, the Congress bagged 135 seats, while the BJP secured 66 and the JD(S) 19.
Why realignment
The current political realignment in Karnataka ahead of the Parliamentary polls, JD(S) sources say, has been “necessitated” after the ruling Congress handed this bitter poll defeat to both BJP and JD(S), rendering them weaker.
The BJP currently looks clueless even after four months of government formation with the Leader of the Opposition yet to be appointed and the party State president to be replaced. The BJP is worried about its number of Lok Sabha seats dwindling if it goes alone to the polls. On the other, the JD(S) that draws its strength from the Vokkaligas saw its number of legislators almost halved from 2018, and seems to be vulnerable to poaching and split, especially from D.K. Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, who helms the KPCC.
The JD(S) had earlier formed governments in coalition with the BJP for 20 months from January 2006, and with the Congress for 14 months from May 2018, with Mr. Kumaraswamy as the Chief Minister.
