BJP seals deal with JDS in south ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, says YS Yediyurappa

According to the senior BJP leader, the JDS will contest four seats and that the deal "will help us win 25 or 26 seats".

According to reports, the JDS wants to contest from the Mandya, Hassan, Bengaluru (Rural), and Chikballapur seats, of which the JDS won only Hassan.

Party patriarch HD Deve Gowda contested from Tumkur and lost.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP swept the state winning 25 seats on its own and counting a 26th after helping an independent candidate to victory.

The Congress won a solitary seat.

The JDS won less than 10 percent of the total vote share, underlining the significance of this alliance, particularly after it was lost in the state polls, in which it secured less than 14 percent of the votes polled.

The tie-up is also key for the BJP as it looks to counter momentum being generated by INDIA, the mega opposition bloc that includes the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Shiv Sena UBT and several more.

The BJP was in power in the southern state till the May election, in which the Congress recorded a surprisingly dominant win, claiming 135 seats in the 224-member house.

This was after HD Kumaraswamy talked up the JDS as a "kingmaker" in post-poll scenarios. However, the Congress' win meant it had no clout for a second successive major election.