Prakash Ambedkar reaches out to Cong after MVA snub, offers support on 7 seats

The MVA previously offered to spare four of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats for Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi

MUMBAI: Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar on Tuesday offered his party’s support to Congress candidates on the seven Lok Sabha seats, a “goodwill” gesture that came after the opposition alliance Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) decided to keep out the VBA.

Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) president Prakash Ambedkar addresses a press conference in Nagpur (ANI FIle)

Ambedkar’s offer, made in a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday, came after the MVA leaders decided to go without the VBA. The MVA had previously offered to spare four of Maharashtra’s 48 seats for VBA. But the VBA insisted it would not settle on anything less than 12 seats.

MVA leaders have said they were not entirely convinced that Ambedkar’s party wanted to be part of the opposition alliance.

Ambedkar’s letter - he put out a copy of the letter on X - blamed the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) for the breakdown of discussions.

“The Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) have refused to listen to VBA’s representatives in the numerous MVA meetings, and we have lost faith in both of these parties due to their unequal attitude towards VBA,” Ambedkar said in his letter to Kharge.

He asked Kharge to send him a list of seven seats on which the Congress would want his party’s support.

“I request you to enlist me the names of 7 constituencies from the quota allotted to the Indian National Congress in the MVA. Our party will lend its complete ground and strategic support to the candidates of your party on these 7 seats of your choice. This proposal from Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi to the Indian National Congress is not only in goodwill but also an extension of a friendly hand for a possible alliance in the future,” the letter said.

To be sure, it was Thackeray who first showed interest in including VBA in the opposition coalition. Despite his differences with MVA, Ambedkar participated in the INDIA coalition rally at Shivaji Park on Sunday.

Also, the MVA leaders on Monday indicated that a tentative agreement being discussed by the coalition partners would allocate 22 seats to the Shiv Sena (UBT), 16 seats for the Congress and 10 seats for the NCP-SP.