United opposition can restrict BJP to 100 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections: Nitish

Kumar, who previously allied with the BJP-led NDA to form a government in Bihar but later broke ties and coalesced with the Teshaswi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), has turned into a bitter opponent of the PM Narendra Modi and BJP.

Kumar was addressing a convention of CPI(ML) on Saturday where leaders of other parties were also invited to discuss strategies to topple the Narendra Modi government at the Centre in the next general elections.

At the convention, the parties accused the BJP of damaging the democratic structure of the country.

Nitish said it was the right time for all opposition parties to come on the same platform in the larger interest of the nation.

The Janata Dal (U) chief said he had been advocating for opposition unity at the national level for the last few months to counter BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he pointed out.

"I have already met top leaders of all opposition parties including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,"  the Bihar Chief Minister said.

He urged senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, who was also present in the meeting, to convey his message to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to urgently convene a meeting to create a consensus among all opposition parties to join a single front.

“Time is running out and ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ also ended two weeks back, so further delay in convening the meeting should be avoided,” he noted.

"If all opposition parties contested together, BJP will not cross the 100 mark in 2024 Lok Sabha elections," Kumar said.

Congress should initiate the move for opposition unity at the national level, he stressed.

“It would be good both for the country and Congress,” he remarked.

The chief minister reiterated that he had no personal ambition as he wasn’t interested to become the PM candidate in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

He also asked his party workers to stop chanting slogans in favour of his candidature, as some JD(U) workers had been doing.

Kumar said that he would continue to work for strengthening the opposition unity in the larger interest of the country.

“It is important to oust BJP from power in the next Lok Sabha elections,” he stressed.

(Withh UNI inputs)