The Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular) have arrived at an “understanding” on four seats for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said on Friday, ANI reported.
To a question on whether the BJP and JD(S) would have an alliance for the General Elections, the BJP leader said: “I am happy that [JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister] Deve Gowda ji met our prime minister and they have already finalised about four seats. For that, I welcome them.”
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP had won 25 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. The Congress and JD(S), who were in an alliance at the time, had won one seat each. Independent candidate Sumalatha had won the Mandya constituency.
The JD(S) had entered into an alliance with the Congress after voting took place for the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections. The BJP had emerged as the single-largest party in the polls, but HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) took oath as the chief minister with the support of the Congress.
However, the government collapsed in July 2019 after several MLAs from the two parties switched over to the BJP. Eventually, the coalition lost the trust vote in the state Assembly, following which the BJP formed the government with Yediyurappa as the chief minister.
On July 28, 2021, Yediyurappa made way for another BJP leader, Basavaraj Bommai, as the chief minister.
The Congress won a majority in the Assembly elections held in May, after which party leader Siddaramaiah became the chief minister.
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