Patna/IBNS: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said BJP is headed for a crushing defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

BJP’s defeat is certain but opposition parties must join hands at the national level to make it a reality, he stressed.

"I have suggested all opposition parties join hands as the main front, not the third front, to take on BJP," Chief Minister said while addressing an open session of the national council of his party JD(U) convened to ratify the election of Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh as party president for next term.

The Bihar leader accused the BJP of acting against JD(U) in the 2020 assembly elections despite being in an alliance, pointing out that never before his party had won fewer seats, either in the assembly polls of 2005 or 2010.

He alleged that the BJP worked to ensure the defeat of JD(U) candidates.

Training his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kumar said Gujarat, where the PM was born, is already a developed state.

While the Centre is supporting Gujarat and other advanced states, the demand for special status for a backward state like Bihar was not accepted by it.

He claimed that Bihar got nothing from Centre while BJP was part of the alliance government with JD(U).

The Centre should give special status to all backward states to push them on the development path, he demanded. Only then the nation could truly progress, he added.

He also accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of muzzling the press and suppressing the news about the achievements of the opposition parties, including his party, in the national media.

(With UNI inputs)