Foes turned friends? BSY hints at JD(S) alliance for 2024 polls

Former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa set tongues wagging on Tuesday when he said that BJP and JD(S) would fight Congress together in the state.

The statement has all but confirmed speculations that there would be a pre-poll alliance between the saffron party and the regional outfit for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP bigwig made the comments while answering a question about a reporter’s query on whether he supported JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy’s allegations that the Congress government had been collecting cash to transfer officers.

Kumaraswamy on Sunday suggested that the State government had been collecting a new tax namely ‘YST’, adding that the new tax was similar to the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

A few days prior, he had wondered aloud which “athindra” (super power) was responsible for the transfers of officials. The YST dig appears to have been directed at CM Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra, who had been the Congress MLA from Varuna from 2018 to 2023. Kumaraswamy even claimed that a minister had collected Rs30 lakh for a transfer.

“Whatever Kumaraswamy is telling is true and I want to support Kumaraswamy’s statement. Kumaraswamy and we, together, we’ll fight in future,” he told media persons.

Mutual needs being met The BJP, which has lost many an ally since the 2014 general elections but has managed simple majorities in the Lok Sabha twice, seeks to scrounge up some alliance partners. The JD(S) on the other hand is fighting an existential battle seeing its seat tally dip to 19 in the May 10 Assembly elections.

The regional outfit is said to have demanded at least six to eight seats in their Vokkaliga heartland of Old Mysuru region. The constituencies they have asked for include Hassan, Mandya, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapur and Tumakuru. It is unlikely they’ll get all of them.

A Lok Sabha pre-poll alliance between Congress and JD(S) in 2019 had ended up with BJP bagging 25 out of the possible 28 seats, leaving a seat a piece for Congress, JD(S) and an independent.