With the much-talked of alliance between Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray yet to be formalised, Mr. Ambedkar on Monday said that the ‘Hindutva’ practised by Mr. Thackeray’s father, the late Shiv Sena founder, Bal Thackeray was one “of convenience”, merely designed to garner votes.
Speaking in Aurangabad, Mr. Ambedkar explained that the rationale behind his proposed alliance with Mr. Thackeray was that the latter had talked of adopting the ‘Hindutva’ as practised by his grandfather Prabhodankar Thackeray (and by implication, not that of his father Bal Thackeray), as his template.
“Balasaheb’s ‘Hindutva’ was merely designed to gain votes… I have decided to ally with Uddhav Thackeray because he wants to follow the variant of ‘Hindutva’ as practiced by his grandfather Prabhodankar Thackeray, which is of social reform. Both Prabodhankar Thackeray and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar [Prakash Ambedkar’s grandfather] had fought together on social issues,” said the VBA chief.
He further said that presently, the alliance, when announced, would be focused at the moment solely on the high-stakes Mumbai civic body (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) election, while reiterating that there would not be any problem regarding seat-sharing.
While talks between the two parties had been going on for several weeks now, a formal announcement was pending. While both factions strongly indicated that the alliance was on, sources pointed to the reluctance of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress (Mr. Thackeray’s Maha Vikas Aghadi partners) in taking the VBA on board.
“The Shiv Sena has to take a call on this alliance... And we are hopeful they will do it soon,” said Mr. Ambedkar.
Potential ‘roadblocks’
When questioned about the potential ‘roadblocks’ to the alliance in the form of Congress and the NCP, Mr. Ambedkar took jibes at both parties and their political histories of ‘using and throwing’ non-BJP leaders.
“[Janata Dal United] leader Sharad Yadav recently passed away…he had, on principle, resisted joining the BJP even when the latter had tried its best to lure him with plum positions. While Mr. Yadav was determined to form a broad anti-BJP front along with the Congress, the latter never stood by him…the Congress has been using everyone all these years,” alleged Mr. Ambedkar.
He further dubbed the Congress and the NCP in Maharashtra as “parties of rich Maratha leaders”, who had no place for the poorer sections of the Maratha community in their respective parties.
Mr. Ambedkar has been signaling the Thackeray camp to seal the alliance without waiting for a sanction from the NCP and the Congress, both of whom, according to him, were not interested in seeing the VBA as part of the MVA coalition.
