BJP to give 4 Lok Sabha seats to JD(S), alliance finalised: Yediyurappa

BENGALURU: Former chief minister and senior BJP leader B S Yediyurappa on Friday said the alliance with the JD(S) for next year’s Lok Sabha polls has been finalised and announced that the BJP will leave four seats for the former.

“Union Home Minister Amit Shah has agreed to giving four seats for the JD(S). They had asked for five seats, but four seats has been okayed. This development will give our ties more energy. Deve Gowda had met the Prime Minister and finalised the alliance. I welcome the development and I will meet Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy at the earliest”, Yediyurappa said.

Of late, there had been murmurs that the Lingayat community had been ignored by the BJP top brass after the Assembly election. However, Yediyurappa now seems back in the saddle months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Recently, the former CM had declared that he was not the one to sit at home at would tour the state in about a month’s time.

The party has so far not been able to identify new faces for the post of state president and leader of the opposition. Senior leaders have also not been able to bring about a sense of unity in the rank and file of the party, political observers pointed out.

In the light of the situation, the party high command has entrusted the task of winning the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats to Yediyurappa and he is expected to draw up a plan for the first phase of the state tour next week.