JDS BJP Alliance: JD(S) announces alliance with BJP; JP Nadda welcomes Karnataka party into NDA fold | India News

NEW DELHI: The Janata Dal (Secular) of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Friday announced alliance with the BJP in Karnataka and formally joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
JD(S) leader and former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy made the announcement after meeting Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda in the national capital.
Nadda welcomed the JD(S) into the NDA fold. ” I am happy that JD(S) has decided to be the part of National Democratic Alliance. We wholeheartedly welcome them in the NDA. This will further strengthen NDA and vision of Hon PM@narendramodiJi for “New India, Strong India”, ” the BJP chief posted on X.

Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant, who was present during the meeting, said the JD(S) has joined hands with the BJP to make the NDA stronger in Karnataka. On the issue of seat sharing for the Lok Sabha elections, Sawant said the two parties will sit and decide on the issue. The Goa CM expressed confidence that the BJP will win all the seats in Karnataka in the next national elections.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 25 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the JD(S) managed only one.
The talks about a possible alliance between the BJP and the JD(S) was doing the rounds ever since the Congress trounced both the parties in the Karnataka assembly elections earlier this year. While the Congress won 135 seats, the BJP could manage only 66 and the JD(S) 19. The JD(S) suffered a huge blow as not only it’s tally was reduced by almost half but the party also lost considerable vote share.
The JD(S) has long been a strong third player in the southern state where the Congress and the BJP have been the two main parties.