AUGUST 11, 2022
Patna: Two days after breaking its ties with the BJP, the JD(U) on Thursday said that its former ally will be ousted from power at the Centre in 2024 general elections.
Janata Dal (United) president Lalan Singh asserted that the BJP will lose 40 Lok Sabha seats out of its 2019 winning tally in three states alone.
In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 47 seats in these three states – Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Singh made the remarks after meeting Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav to enquire about his health.
“I took blessing from Lalu ji that we have to uproot them (BJP) in the 2024 polls. We have to target to bring their tally down merely by 40 seats as they had won 303 seats,” he said.
“Their tally will be reduced by 40 seats in the three seats of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal alone,” he claimed.
Nitish Kumar on Tuesday ended alliance with the BJP-led NDA in Bihar and joined hands with the RJD and other opposition parties including Congress to form ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government.
The JD(U) leader on Wednesday took oath as Bihar chief minister for a record eighth time and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as his deputy.
The BJP has accused Kumar of pushing Bihar into the abyss of lawlessness and corruption by entering into a fresh alliance with the RJD.
The ties between the BJP and the JD(U) had been under the strain for quite some time in view of differences over a range of issues including caste census, population control and the ‘Agnipath’ defence recruitment scheme.
Former Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Kumar of pushing Bihar back into the era of lawlessness and corruption by joining hands with RJD.
“You talk about communalism but you aligned with us in the 1990s when the Ayodhya movement was at its peak. You fought with us against Lalu Prasad on the issue of his involvement in fodder scam. In 2013, your personal dislike for Narendra Modi made you leave us and join hands with the RJD president”, Prasad said.
“You left the RJD in 2017 after Tejashwi Yadav’s name cropped up in a corruption case. You are now pushing Bihar back into the era of lawlessness and corruption which you claimed credit for bringing the state out of,” Prasad, an MP from Bihar’s Patna Sahib, said.
