Prakash Ambedkar says no response from INDIA bloc parties on his alliance offer

 Mumbai: Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar on Saturday said he was still clueless about his party’s inclusion in the INDIA bloc. Ambedkar, who heads Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, said that he has finalised alliance with the Shiv Sena UBT, but has not received any information about the stand taken by the Congress and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction). He has threatened to contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra separately if not included in the INDIA bloc.

Ambedkar said that he wants to become part of the INDIA bloc in order to avoid division of anti-BJP votes and has even written a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge about it, but he has not received any official communication from the Congress, NCP or even Shiv Sena UBT.

“We have an alliance with the Shiv Sena UBT. But the other two parties have not decided anything on our participation in the opposition alliance. Shiv Sena UBT has not informed us anything about it,” Ambedkar said.

The Shiv Sena UBT has been urging the Congress and NCP to include the VBA in their alliance. Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said that the Congress and NCP are positive about it and things are being finalised. He also said that Ambedkar is talking to Uddhav Thackeray as well as Sharad Pawar.

The grandson of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar said that all opposition parties should come together to defeat the BJP. “This is our stand also. We have written a letter to the Congress about it, but so far we have not received any response. Since we have an alliance with Shiv Sena UBT, we wanted them to sort out seat sharing with the other partners first. Once the three parties finalise their seat sharing, we will discuss with the Shiv Sena UBT about our formula. If the talks among Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena UBT fail, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party and VBA will contest 24 seats each. I have already made that clear,” he said.

Though VBA cannot win any seat on its own, it can make Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra more difficult for the INDIA bloc parties. The Shiv Sena UBT and NCP have already suffered huge blows because of mass defections in their parties. As per the records of the Election Commission of India, the VBA had secured more than 37 lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, which was nearly seven per cent of the total valid votes polled in Maharashtra. Therefore the Shiv Sena UBT is insisting on accommodating the VBA in the alliance.