Virtually ruling out any pre-poll alliance with the Congress, Prakash Ambedkar, president of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, announced on Tuesday that the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) would contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
With an eye to securing the Dalit-Muslim votes, BBM forged an alliance with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) to form the VBA which also comprises of smaller outfits.
Speaking in Akola district, Mr. Ambedkar, leader of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, said the proposals presented by Congress so far were unacceptable and that discussions about joining the ‘anti-BJP front’ led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had hit a roadblock.
“I do not see this discussion [about a pre-poll alliance] moving any further. I consider all proposals presented to us by the Congress have been exhausted. We cannot take back the names of the 22 candidates we have finalised,” said Mr. Ambedkar.
The BBM chief, a grandson of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, said that as the names of 22 VBA candidates had already been announced, the remaining would be announced in Mumbai on March 15.
“We had even offered Congress to choose among the 22 candidates we had announced. The candidates, too, had expressed no objection about contesting on a Congress symbol. But with no response forthcoming from the Congress, I do not see any headway in this discussion,” Mr. Ambedkar said.
Mr. Ambedkar’s announcement of his candidacy from the Solapur Lok Sabha constituency on Monday is expected to increase the discomfiture of veteran Congressman and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who has been elected several times in the past from that seat before losing to the BJP’s Sharad Bansode in 2014.
