BENGALURU: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) founded and led by former prime minister of India H. D. Deve Gowda, which is mostly regional to the state of Karnataka have sealed an alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha election 2024 in the state.

While the alliance was formally confirmed by BJP central leadership led by BJP chief JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a recent meeting they held with JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda, it was formally made public by senior Karnataka BJP leader and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa.

While talking to reporters in Bengaluru, Yediyurappa said, "I am happy that Deve Gowda ji met our Prime Minister and they have already finalised about 4 seats." 

While Yediyurappa said that the agreement has been for four Lok Sabha seats, the JDS, according to party sources, still expects five LS seats, including Hassan, Mandya, Kolar, Chikkaballapura and Bengaluru Rural, however if BJP remains rigid then they would settle for four and will not ask for Chikkaballapura set to be given to them. 

The present member of parliament from Chikkaballapura is former state minister B.N. Bache Gowda from the BJP who in the 2019 general elections had defeated senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily by a huge margin of 1,82,110 votes.

JDS leader and former chief minister of Karnataka and HD Kumaraswamy has said that the party aimed to defeat the Congress party which was presently ruling in the state in upcoming elections, however on the seat sharing he said, "So far, JDS has not made any final decisions yet. We are waiting, and discussions are going on."

On the statement of Yediyurappa on the number of seats, Kumaraswamy said that Yediyurappa's statement was his personal reaction. "Until now, there has been no discussion on seat sharing or anything. We have met cordially 2 or 3 times. Later on, let us see what is going to happen," he said.  JDS has 19 MLAs in Karnataka and Kumaraswamy refuted speculations about divisions in the JDS saying that all the 19 MLAs are together.

Meanwhile, Congress leader and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah criticised the JDS party and called it a B team of the BJP. "I had called JDS as BJP's B-team and their party people used to get angry at me, but this alliance has proven it now. " Siddaramaiah also said, that while JDS has named themselves secular but have joined hands with the communal party, and people will reject their alliance.