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Karnataka BJP tones down opposition to Patel

Softening his earlier stand somewhat, the Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit president B S Yediyurappa today said he would not oppose Chief Minister J H Patel contesting the assembly election under the Lok Shakti's banner.

Addressing reporters in Gulbarga, Yediyurappa said that as a trusted ally of the Lok Shakti, the BJP would campaign for Patel provided he contested as a Lok Shakti candidate and not of a faction of the Janata Dal.

The Lok Shakti is an electoral ally of the BJP, he said, and the BJP is not concerned about its ally's selection of candidates for the assembly or Lok Sabha seats.

He said both parties would sit down in a couple of days to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement.

The state BJP unit will ask for more seats this time, he said, because it had won 13 of the 18 Lok Sabha it had contested in 1998 and widened its base.

UNI

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