The Bharatiya Janata Party will be reduced to 50 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections if all Opposition parties unite, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claimed on Saturday.

Kumar made the statement while addressing the Janata Dal (United)’s state executive meeting in Patna. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, the BJP had won 303 seats. A party needs to win 282 constituencies for majority in Parliament.

Kumar blamed the “BJP’s conspiracy” for the low number of seats that the Janata Dal (United) secured in the 2020 Bihar elections, PTI reported. In the polls, the Janata Dal (United) won 43 seats, significantly below its 2015 tally of 71 seats.

The chief minister said that the saffron party may try to disturb social and communal harmony in Bihar. “We must foil their designs by keeping vigil to the level of panchayats,” he said.

On August 9, the Janata Dal (United) severed ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. A day later, Janata Dal (United) chief Kumar took oath as chief minister of Bihar for the eighth time with support from the Rashtriya Janata Dal and six other parties of the Grand Alliance.

On August 24, the Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance won the floor test in Bihar Assembly, while BJP MLAs walked out of the House in protest.

After the Grand Alliance formed the government in Bihar, some media reports suggested that the Janata Dal (United) chief could be the face of a united Opposition in the Lok Sabha elections. However, Kumar said on August 12 that he had no aspirations of becoming the Opposition’s prime ministerial candidate.

The chief minister, however, said that he would play a role in uniting the Opposition parties against the National Democratic Alliance.