Facing stiff fight, BJP manages to win over JD(S)

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, September 22

In a boost to the BJP ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the JD(S) in Karnataka joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday, cementing the decision to fight with the saffron party in a pre-election pact.

The BJP, which hit its peak in Karnataka in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections winning 25 of the state’s 28 parliamentary seats, was looking to seal the alliance with the JD(S), which has long held a sway among the Vokkaligas, the state’s second-most dominant caste after Lingayats and the minorities. “I am happy that the JD(S) has decided to be a part of the NDA. We wholeheartedly welcome it to the NDA. This will further strengthen the NDA and vision of PM Narendra Modi ji for a ‘new India, strong India’,” BJP president JP Nadda said after a meeting with HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) at his residence today.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also present at the meeting. Shah negotiated with the JD(S) supremo and former PM HD Deve Gowda on the pre-poll arrangements which the parties are yet to disclose formally. In the recently concluded Karnataka elections, the Congress won big bagging 135 of the 224 Assembly seats, followed by the BJP at 66 and the JD(S) at its lowest-ever 19 as the Vokkaligas and even minorities shifted away from it.

Interestingly, in the 2019 LS polls, the JD(S) had contested in a pre-poll pact with the Congress against the BJP. The alliance failed to impress as the BJP won 25 seats and the 26th — Mandya — was won by an Independent the BJP backed. Only two MPs of the Congress-JD(S) alliance won in 2019 — Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar’s brother D Suresh (Congress) and HD Kumaraswamy’s nephew Prajwal Revanna.

BJP sources said in 2024, they could do with allies in Karnataka where their performance had peaked in 2019.

Karnataka and Telangana are the only southern states that returned BJP MPs (25 and four, respectively) to the Lok Sabha in 2019.

The saffron party drew a blank in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

The pact comes as a breather for the BJP days after the AIADMK recently announced it would not ally with the BJP in Tamil Nadu.

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