Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar has highlighted the turmoil within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over seat sharing. Mr. Ambedkar has thus far resisted casting his lot with the opposition coalition. He has now written to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge seeking direct talks for seat-sharing, while detailing problems bedeviling the core MVA parties.
He said the VBA “was not the reason for the deadlock over seat-sharing talks within the MVA.” Mr. Ambedkar, an ally of Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena (UBT) claimed that the Congress and Mr. Thackeray’s faction were at loggerheads over 10 Lok Sabha seats, while there was a lack of concurrence between the Congress, the Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) over five seats.
Also read | MVA's seat-sharing formula will be finalised after March 17: Chennithala
Parties unyielding
“The Sena (UBT) and the Congress are not willing to give up any of these seats. This is just one part of the problem. There are five more seats on which Mr. Thackeray’s party, the Congress and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) are not willing to compromise,” Mr. Ambedkar said on Tuesday, while speaking to reporters.
The VBA president was particularly severe on Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut, alleging that the latter had “falsely” told the media that the VBA had not sought any seats from the MVA coalition.
“We [the VBA] cannot provide our proposal until their [core MVA parties] fight is resolved We need to know whether they will continue as MVA or have a friendly fight,” said Mr. Ambedkar.
He said while his party wanted to go with the MVA, it could not do so until the three MVA partners had resolved their respective seat-sharing problems.
He said he had spoken to Maharashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala on this matter.
“I wrote a letter to Shri Mallikarjun Kharge on March 10, and highlighted the telephonic conversation I had with Shri Ramesh Chennithala. Taking into account the time left for elections, lack of concurrence between the INC and SS (UBT), and the MVA’s failure to finalise a seat-sharing formula, I approached Shri Ramesh Chennithala on March 9. During an extensive telephone call Chennithala ji shared his concern about Shiv Sena (UBT) being adamant about at least 18 seats. I proposed that Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi and Congress should hold talks on all those seats which the Congress has sought for itself in the MVA. I hope the Congress and VBA will soon sit together so we can topple the BJP-RSS government,” said Mr. Ambedkar, in a post on X.
