It’s official: JD(S) to join NDA, fight 2024 LS polls in alliance with BJP

Following the meeting at Shah’s residence in New Delhi, where Goa CM Pramod Sawant was also present, Kumaraswamy said the next rounds of talks will be held with Karnataka BJP leaders.

Announcing the tie-up on social media, Nadda said: “I am happy that the JD(S) has decided to be part of the National Democratic Alliance… This will further strengthen the NDA and the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘New India, Strong India’.”

Met Former Chief Minister of Karnataka and JD(S) leader Shri H.D. Kumaraswamy in the presence of our senior leader and Home Minister Shri @AmitShah Ji.
I am happy that JD(S) has decided to be the part of National Democratic Alliance. We wholeheartedly welcome them in the NDA.… pic.twitter.com/eRDUdCwLJc

— Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) September 22, 2023

Earlier on Friday, former PM and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, whose personal friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen as the cornerstone of the JD(S)-BJP alliance, indicated that alliance talks were on and being led by his son Kumaraswamy. A Rajya Sabha MP, Deve Gowda participated in the recent Parliament session, during which the Bill to provide 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, first envisaged by a government led by him in 1996, was passed.

Earlier this month, former BJP Karnataka CM and a member of the party national executive, B S Yediyurappa, had said that a BJP-JD(S) alliance for the 2024 polls was set to be forged. “Amit Shah has agreed to give four Lok Sabha seats (to the JD-S). This will strengthen us in a big way. It will facilitate victory in 25 to 26 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka,” Yediyurappa had said.

Kumaraswamy said at the time that alliance talks with the BJP were in the preliminary stages and that no agreement had been reached on seat-sharing, while adding that whatever they decide, would be “from the perspective of the state and the bad governance by the current government”. “It is not about give and take, but it is about trust and respect,” he said.

The JD(S) has been a partner of both the Congress and BJP in Karnataka in government. On Friday, the Congress questioned the JD(S) move, saying it had rushed into the arms of the BJP after suffering a big defeat in the state polls in May.

“The JD(S) would vent its anger against me when I said they were the B-team of the BJP. They also claim to have a secular ideology, they are called the Janata Dal (Secular). But now they have joined hands with communal forces,” Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said.

However, for both the JD(S) and BJP, the alliance is good realpolitik, with the two coming to accept the reality of their fractured support bases in Karnataka in the aftermath of the 2023 Assembly polls, which the Congress won comprehensively.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 25 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, of them eight of 11 in south Karnataka, the JD(S)’s base. ‘Modi magic’ along with the JD(S)’s caste arithmetic in the region might help the BJP make up for the lack of leaders and the loss of political ground in Karnataka since 2019.

The JD(S) still has a base in the 11 South Karnataka Lok Sabha seats, where the Vokkaliagas dominate, while the BJP is stronger in the 17 seats in north, central and coastal Karnataka, on the back of the support for Modi and the Lingayat community.

For the JD(S), which is struggling to stay afloat, the alliance offers a lifeline as it does not have the wherewithal to take on the financial power of the ruling Congress in Karnataka and the central BJP at the same time.

Deve Gowda has suggested that the JD(S)’s support can tilt the scales in favour of the BJP in many northern districts as well, where there is a direct battle with the Congress – for example, constituencies such as Vijayapura, Raichur and Chikkamagaluru.

In 2019, the JD(S) had contested the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Congress. But the partners, who had a 21:7 seat-sharing arrangement, were steamrolled by the BJP, resulting in the two parties winning only one seat each.

This time, the state Congress was not keen on having the JD(S) in the INDIA coalition, on account of their conflicting electoral interests in south Karnataka.

As for the JD(S) and BJP, apart from formal tie-ups, the JD(S) has also helped the BJP tactically on many occasions in the Karnataka Assembly by voting in favour of its legislation. With Deve Gowda now 90, the JD(S) perhaps saw a shrinking window to seal an alliance with the BJP and ensure its longevity after successive poll setbacks since 2018.

Despite his cordial relationship with Modi, Deve Gowda, however, was reportedly reluctant to have an alliance that would be seen as a step away from the secular ideology he has been wedded to his political life.

Kumaraswamy though has never shied away from the BJP. The JD(S) alliance with the BJP in 2006 too was seen to have been at Kumaraswamy’s behest, against Deve Gowda’s wishes. The alliance had lasted only a year, after the JD(S) failed to transfer power to the BJP as per their pre-poll agreement.