BJP, JD (S) reach understanding, Deve Gowda's party to contest on four seats, confirms Yediyurappa

Former Karnataka CM and BJP leader BS Yediyurappa on Friday confirmed that the saffron party has entered into an alliance with the JD(S) in Karnataka and have already agreed to give four seats to Deve Gowda's party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.Addressing the reporters in Bengaluru on Friday, he said, "I am happy that Deve Gowda ji met our Prime Minister and they have already finalised about 4 seats. I welcome them..."Karnataka has a total of 28 parliamentary constituencies."BJP and JD(S) will have an understanding. Amit Shah (Union Home Minister) has agreed to give four Lok Sabha seats to the JD(S))," the four-time Chief Minister added."This has given us great strength and this will help us in winning 25 or 26 Lok Sabha seats together," said the former Karnataka chief minister.JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda had recently met BJP chief JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the meeting indicated that BJP and the JD(S) would walk into an alliance - only the details were pending.JD(S) had forged an alliance with the Congress and formed the government with HD Kumaraswamy as the chief minister in 2018. A year later, the government was ousted after it lost the trust vote in 2019.According to reports, JDS wanted to contest from Mandya, Hassan, Tumakuru, Chickballapur and Bengaluru Rural. BJP agreed to let it contest on four seats - Kolar, Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru rural.The move comes days after Deve Gowda claimed that his party was neither with the I.N.D.I.A (Indian Nartional Developmental Inclusive Alliance) nor with the NDA and said that it would fight the Lok Sabha elections independently.With inputs from agencies