The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Friday made a pitch for unity among opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, stating that the BJP can be defeated if all key leaders of these political outfits keep aside their ego and stick to their current stance of not keen on becoming the next prime minister.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party also praised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying people have started liking his patience, and also stated that everyone needs to come out of the illusion that the Gandhi scion cannot be a match to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', the Uddhav Thackeray-led party dubbed the BJP's defeat in Karnataka as a bad omen for 2024 and also predicted that in the upcoming Assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will lose Madhya Pradesh and the Congress will retain Chhattisgarh and in Rajasthan "magician" Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will make the battle difficult for the saffron party.

Everyone should come out of the illusion that Rahul Gandhi cannot be a match to PM Modi. In fact, now Modi himself feels that the Gandhi scion poses a challenge to him, it claimed.

The Sena (UBT) said if Gandhi undertakes an independent campaign in north India, then the prospects of his party there could change.

It further said Modi himself will be the reason for the BJP's defeat in 2024 and Home Minister Amit Shah will contribute to it. There is anger against the Modi-Shah duo and people have made up their mind to defeat the BJP, it said.

"The question remains who will be pitted as the prime ministerial candidate against Modi. It will be the Constitution and Mother India. A leader will emerge from amongst the people," it said.

It is necessary to take along the "vanar sena" to overthrow the rule of demon king Ravana, the party added.

"For this, everyone has to keep aside the attitude of 'me first'. Every groom (a reference to key opposition leaders) is of the opinion that he does not want to become the prime minister. If all grooms stick to this stance, then everything will happen as per their wishes (to dislodge the Modi government)," the party said.

It said the country has 36 states and BJP is not ruling in Bihar, West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand.

"If the BJP loses seats in bigger states like West Bengal and smaller states like Haryana, then it will lose around 100 seats. The BJP claims that it will cross 400 seats, but their own leaders say it will be good if the party crosses the 200-mark," the editorial said.

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