BJP-JDS seal alliance in Karnataka; not worried, says Congress

The BJP and JDS on Friday formally joined hands "in-principle" for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, ending weeks of speculation over the alliance. BJP veteran leader BS Yediyurappa confirmed the news, saying the JDS will be contesting four of the 28 seats in the Parliament elections next year while the BJP will contest the rest.

"If both the parties form an alliance, BJP will get more power and it will help us win 25 to 26 seats," said Yediyurappa, who is also a member of the BJP's Parliamentary board. The speculations of the alliance had amped up this week after JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda met with BJP national president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Responding to the announcement, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made light of the BJP-JDS alliance, saying the Congress has the upper hand with support from the public. "Whether there will be an alliance between them or they fight separately, I am not bothered," he said.

The Congress derided the alliance, with Minister of Forest, Biology and Environment Ishwara Khandre calling it a "testament to the pathetic condition of the party in the state." Mocking the BJP for having to ally even after winning 25 Lok Sabha seats in the last polls, he said, "This has been interpreted as a sign that [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi and the BJP's influence has waned in the state." The minister also blamed the Congress' alliance with the JDS in 2019 for the former's poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls, saying it was a stroke of good luck for the grand old party that the JDS was allying with the BJP.

The JDS had suffered a crippling blow in the assembly polls this May, dashing its dream of playing kingmaker, as it crashed down to 19 seats - a sharp fall from 37 seats in 2018. The party had not fared any better in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections either, winning just one seat while the BJP walked away with 25 seats.

The alliance with the saffron party is a huge turnaround for the JDS which had formed a coalition government in the state with the Congress in 2018. The regime, helmed by JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy, fell within a year after 17 MLAs defected to the BJP.

While the parties had bitterly opposed each other in the run up to the assembly polls with the BJP going as far as to call the JDS the Congress' "B-team," the parties have cooperated on various issues after the Congress assumed office. The JDS joined the BJP in boycotting assembly proceedings in July, in protest of Speaker UT Khader suspending 10 BJP MLAs for creating a ruckus in the house. While Kumarawamy denied any chances of an alliance then, he had said the party would lend "issue-based support" to the BJP.