The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to emerge as the single-largest party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said on Sunday, reported the Hindustan Times.

Tharoor, however, said that the BJP can be stopped from forming a government by significantly bringing down its seat tally so that the Hindutva party’s allies may not be willing to support the National Democratic Alliance and instead back the Opposition INDIA bloc.

The BJP alone had won 303 seats out of the 543 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress secured 52 seats. A party or a coalition needs 272 seats for a majority in the Lower House.

This time, the BJP-led alliance is aiming to cross the 400-mark. The Congress and 27 other Opposition parties have formed The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, also known as the INDIA bloc, to take on the National Democratic Alliance in the elections.

At the Kerala Literature Festival on Sunday, Tharoor also said that preventable defeats can be avoided if the INDIA bloc reaches seat-sharing agreements in sufficient number of states.

“That’s the best thing they can do, and if it so happens, and there is enough divergence of views, maybe the BJP candidate will win,” he added. “But that’s democracy in our first-past-the-post system.”

Citing the example of Kerala, Tharoor said it was impossible for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress to agree to a seat-sharing agreement as they are the main opponents in the state, reported PTI.

“...But right next door in Tamil Nadu, the CPI, CPI(M), Congress and DMK [Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam] are all allied together and there is no debate, no dispute,” he added. “They already fought the last election together. They are likely to fight this one too.”

The INDIA bloc is holding seat-sharing arrangements in several states.

On January 9, the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena group and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party faction, all constituents of the INDIA bloc, agreed on a seat-sharing plan for the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra. The parties also decided to include Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi party in their alliance.

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party are negotiating a seat-sharing plan for Delhi and Punjab.

The Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar have been firm in their demands to contest a substantial number of seats in their states.

Also read: Bharat Jodo 2.0 will avoid ally strongholds – but INDIA parties are still not happy with it