PATNA: Bihar CM and JD(U)’s de facto leader Nitish Kumar on Saturday said the BJP would be restricted to 50 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, if all opposition parties across the country get united to contest against the saffron party.
Addressing a meeting of JD(U)’s Bihar state executive committee at the party office here, Nitish also said, “I am already engaged in the campaign of uniting all opposition and regional parties against the BJP.”
Earlier addressing the meet, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh said the BJP could be reduced to 150 seats in the 2024 polls due to the people’s growing disenchantment towards the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
But when Nitish stood to address the meeting, he referred to Lalan’s observation about 150 seats and asserted that the BJP would be reduced to only 50 seats in the 2024 polls if all opposition parties across the country come at one platform and give a united contest against the Modi-led saffron party.
“Ever since we left the NDA, I have been getting phone calls from opposition leaders from across the country. Leaders of almost all parties are annoyed with the BJP the way the Centre is harassing its political opponents. The kind of feedback I am getting from the leaders of different states/ regions, I am sure the BJP will be reduced to only 50 seats, if we all get united against the BJP,” Nitish told the party leaders.
Later in a resolution passed at the party’s national executive meeting held at the same venue, the JD(U) authorized Nitish to visit different parts to work for forging unity among different political parties.
Party leaders said CM Nitish would go to Delhi on September 5 on a three-day tour to meet senior leaders of different political parties including Congress. “Nitish is expected to meet Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi, senior leader of Left parties and former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala of INLD,” a senior JD(U) leader said.
In a resolution passed at its national executive meeting which was also attended by Nitish and all other top party leaders, the JD(U) said, “There is an ‘undeclared emergency’ in the country under the BJP-led Narendra Modi government which is making all attempts to silence voices of opposition leaders by “misusing” the central investigating agencies.”
“The BJP government at the Centre is labelling the democratic right of dissent as “treason”,” Nitish’s party said.
The JD(U), in its political resolution, also accused the BJP of stoking communal frenzy in the country. “Minorities are being targeted. Intolerance and extremism have increased in society. Dalits and tribals are being harassed,” the JD(U) said.
The JD(U) also criticized the BJP government at the Centre for its “authoritarian tendencies” and hit out at the ruling party for “destabilising” non-BJP governments in several states including in Delhi and Jharkhand.
Speaking at the national executive meet, the Bihar CM also recalled how the seats of JD(U) reduced to 43 in the 2020 assembly polls from 71 in 2015 due to “conspiracy of the BJP” and also said that he was not interested in accepting the CM’s chair after his party’s poor performance in the 2020 polls.
