Hardening his stance over allying with the Congress and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc for the 2024 General Election, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar on Monday said if the Congress did not respond to the VBA’s offer of alliance within a week, then the party would contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra on its own.
Explaining the reason behind his ‘ultimatum’, Mr. Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, said that while Congress leaders had been claiming they had yet to receive any alliance proposal from the VBA, his party had, in fact, written to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on September 1 when the party and its allies were in Mumbai for the third INDIA bloc meeting.
Mr. Ambedkar said that an e-mail from VBA spokesperson Advocate Priyadarshi Telang to Mr. Kharge was written to request the Congress to debunk the on-going speculation of the VBA being sent an invitation for the INDIA alliance meeting in Mumbai.
