Ready to give Cong 144 of 288 Assembly seats: Prakash Ambedkar

The Congress said that it did its best to convince Ambedkar of the danger posed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance.

The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has made a fresh seat-sharing offer to the Congress by agreeing to give it 144 of the total 288 Assembly seats, from its initial offer of 40. It clarified that this was an offer only for the Congress and seats for its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would have to be adjusted from the remaining 144 seats.

Before the Lok Sabha (LS) polls, Ambedkar had played hardball, leading to the VBA contesting independently. VBA had tied up with AIMIM and was able to poll 41.08 lakh votes in the state, bringing its vote share to 7.63%. (HT image)

“This was the best offer and the Congress should decide fast. We are going to announce the first list this month, after which there will be no more talks. We will then contest all 288 seats with our ally All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM),” said VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar.

The Congress said that it did its best to convince Ambedkar of the danger posed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance. “Ambedkar needs to give us a serious offer as we all need to unite against forces that are against the Constitution,” said Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant.

Before the Lok Sabha (LS) polls, Ambedkar had played hardball, leading to the VBA contesting independently. VBA had tied up with AIMIM and was able to poll 41.08 lakh votes in the state, bringing its vote share to 7.63%.

Since the VBA was able to ensure the defeat of the Congress-NCP alliance in a couple of constituencies, both parties had referred to Ambedkar’s front as the “B team” of BJP.