Congress Wants VBA in Alliance, Ambedkar Denies Receiving Formal Invitation

 Mumbai: Congress’s Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday said that his party wants to unite all like-minded parties, including Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, to fight against the BJP in the state. He said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — which includes Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and Shiv Sena UBT— will contest all Lok Sabha seats together. Mr. Pawar and Mr. Thackeray are holding talks with the VBA leadership and final seat distribution will be announced soon, he said. However, Mr. Ambedkar denied receiving any formal invitation from the MVA.Mr.

Chennithala along with state Congress president Nana Patole held a meeting in Pune to review Lok Sabha seats in the Western Maharashtra region. Senior party leaders Balasaheb Thorat, Prithviraj Chavan, Vijay Vadettiwar, Naseem Khan were also present in the meeting.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the meeting, Mr Chennithala accused the BJP of using religion for political gains. “BJP is hurting the reach traditions of our country. Everyone worships Prabhu Ram. But the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are using Lor Ram for elections. Even in the Ram temple consecration ceremony, Mr. Modi gave a political speech,” the Congress leader said.

When asked whether Mr. Ambedkar’s party will be part of the MVA, Mr. Chennithala said that efforts are being made to take all like-minded parties together. “Mr. Pawar and Mr. Thackeray have been holding discussions regarding Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s inclusion. We announce our seat-sharing decision soon.”

However, Mr. Ambedkar reiterated that his party has prepared to go it alone in the Lok Sabha elections as so far there is no formal invitation from the MVA. “We are ready to contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. We are confident that we will double our vote share than 2019,” he said.

The VBA had dented Congress-NCP alliance’s chances in several Lok Sabha seats in 2019. 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. Mr. Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, was the runner-up in Akola seat ahead of Congress’s Hidayatullah Barakatullah Patel.