The Janata Dal United (JDU) on Saturday said the era of “political untouchability” was over in the country and the entire Opposition would have to come together to successfully counter the BJP.

The JDU held its national council meeting in Patna on Saturday to discuss the emerging political scenario in the aftermath of the recent Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls.

The party, which left the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in August to join hands with the Grand Alliance to form a new government in Bihar, entrusted chief minister Nitish Kumar with “Mission 2024” to bring the Opposition on a platform for the next Lok Sabha elections.

Nitish started making moves for a broad-based Opposition unity in the country soon after breaking away from the NDA and met top leaders from the Congress, the Left and other parties.

“The overwhelming defeat in Gujarat or the strong victory of the BJP was due to a divided Opposition. It is a lesson as well as an opportunity for us. Nitish’s Mission 2024 is that there is no place of political untouchability among the Opposition and all of them need to come together,” JDU secretary general K.C. Tyagi briefed reporters about the national council meeting, which was attended by party leaders from several states.

Tyagi asserted that the recently concluded election results have revealed that the Opposition parties will have to accept a bigger role for a party that may be stronger at a particular place or state.

“I was with the Congress election campaign in Himachal Pradesh at the request of Nitish. The victory was possible because no political party (except the Aam Aadmi Party) was against it. Similarly, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal won two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh because no other party put up candidates against them,” Tyagi said.

Earlier this week, the BJP clocked a landslide victory in Gujarat by winning 156 of the 182 Assembly seats, while the Congress took Himachal Pradesh by bagging 40 of the 68 constituencies. Talking further about the prospects of Opposition unity, Tyagi said the “task is difficult, but not impossible”.

The JDU secretary-general pointed out that Nitish enjoyed good relations with the Congress, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, leaders of the Left parties and the regional outfits to indicate that the Bihar chief minister could be the right person to bring the entire Opposition on a platform against the BJP.

The JDU national council re-elected Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lalan Singh as its national president. Nitish was also present.

“We are happy that Lalan’s new tenure is beginning today. We hope that the JDU will achieve the status of a national party during it, and he will also play a positive and important role in Nitish’s Mission 2024,” Tyagi said.

The JDU refrained from blaming Asaduddin Owaisi and his AIMIM for the victory of the BJP, but was of the opinion that “he creates such an atmosphere that it seems that the contest is between the BJP and his party or the fight is between the Hindus and the Muslims. This helps the BJP directly or indirectly.”

The party said that better education and awareness were the best methods to control population and it did not support the BJP in any manner with regard to punitive measures to check population growth.