Rumblings of discontent have surfaced within Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) after retired judge B.G. Kolse-Patil said he was withdrawing support to the outfit.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Justice (retd.) Kolse-Patil ascribed his decision to Mr. Ambedkar’s “failure” to ally with the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
However, Mr. Kolse-Patil’s decision comes after the VBA said it would field a candidate from the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) from Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency – a seat which the retired judge himself was desirous of contesting in the upcoming general election.
“If we do not ally with the Congress and the NCP, I cannot see how we can defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). If we form a ‘third front’ and fight separately, it is inevitable that votes will get split to benefit the BJP,” he told The Hindu .
Mr. Kolse-Patil, who along with retired Supreme Court judge P.B. Sawant, was among the chief organisers of the controversial ‘Elgaar Parishad’ in 2017, said that the VBA’s stand in not allying with the Congress had allegedly hurt his cause of taking on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“For several years, I have taken a clear stance against Mr. Modi, BJP national president Amid Shah and the ideologies of the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). By not allying with the Congress, we have lost an opportunity to prevent the BJP from coming to power again,” he said.
He however, added that he would contest from Aurangabad if only to take on the Modi-Shah duo, and would perhaps fight either as an Independent or on a Janata Dal (Secular) ticket.
Mr. Ambedkar had earlier endorsed Mr. Kolse-Patil’s candidacy after the latter expressed eagerness to be fielded as a candidate from the Aurangabad LS seat on grounds that he had a sizeable constituency there.
However, the announcement projecting Mr. Kolse-Patil as a likely candidate from Aurangabad plunged the AIMIM’s state leadership in a turmoil after MLA Imtiaz Jaleel, an eager aspirant for the seat and the party’s most prominent face in Maharashtra, threatened to quit and contest as an Independent.
According to Mr. Jaleel, the AIMIM has a strong base in Aurangabad, and Mr. Kolse-Patil is a political novice.
To avoid any schism within the VBA, Mr. Ambedkar reportedly gave in to Mr. Jaleel’s demand by agreeing to drop Mr. Kolse-Patil’s candidature for the seat.
‘Why mention caste?’
Meanwhile, Mr. Ambedkar has also come in from criticism from former MP Prof. Jogendra Kawade, founder of the People’s Republican Party, a splinter of the Republican Party of India.
Mr. Kawade has lashed out at Mr. Ambedkar for mentioning the caste of every candidate in VBA’s first list of 37.
“Prakash Ambedkar has completely overturned the ideas of his grandfather, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who tirelessly battled the caste system. It is ironic that Prakash Ambedkar, who opposed the inclusion of the caste column in school certificates, should now mention the caste of his candidates,” said Prof. Kawade.
