Amid the uncertainty hovering over the induction of Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in the Opposition INDIA bloc, senior Congressman and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Tuesday said he personally favoured taking the VBA along in Maharashtra as it would help prevent vote fragmentation in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha election.
“It is my personal opinion that he [Prakash Ambedkar] should be taken into the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). It is beneficial for both of us as it will help prevent fragmentation of votes, which is what the BJP is trying to achieve by keeping Opposition parties divided,” he said.
The Congressman said that a decision on smaller parties wishing to join the INDIA bloc would be taken following an internal party discussion in Delhi on December 29.
Also Read | Roadblocks to unity: On the INDIA bloc
“Once that is done, it clears the way for all the other parties who wish to join the Congress. We want to go to the polls by taking VBA with us,” Mr. Chavan added.
Mr. Ambedkar, who has often expressed exasperation at the Congress’s delay in inducting the VBA into the Opposition alliance, had earlier hinted that his party would go it alone on all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
Currently, he is allied with Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) in Maharashtra. The Sena (UBT) is, in turn, allied with the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition.
At a VBA rally earlier this week, Mr. Ambedkar again stated that while the VBA was trying to help the Congress fight the BJP, he was being rebuffed by both the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction.
“We [VBA] are out to help you, be it the Congress, Rahul Gandhi or Sharad Pawar or his NCP. We are trying to ground this ghost [alluding to the BJP-RSS] from Nagpur [RSS headquarters]. But unfortunately, the Congress is trying to ground me,” he alleged.
Equal seat-sharing
Meanwhile, following a meeting of the VBA’s State working committee in Sambhajinagar district on Tuesday, party leaders have said that there was no alternative for the three MVA parties but to take their party along if they wished to defeat PM Modi and the BJP in 2024.
The VBA has further passed a resolution demanding equitable distribution of the 48 Lok Sabha seats among the four parties — Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the VBA.
Also Read | Uniting front: On the INDIA bloc
“Removing PM Modi from power is our main agenda. Our formula for this in Maharashtra is that the 48 Lok Sabha seats should be equally divided between the four parties, with everyone contesting on 12 Lok Sabha seats each,” said Siddharth Mokale, chief spokesperson, VBA.
He further said that only if all four parties came together, they would be able to defeat the BJP.
“Given the increase in the VBA’s organisational strength since the 2019 Lok Sabha and the weakening of the three MVA parties, all parties must fight on 12 seats,” he said, warning that if the Congress delayed decision, then the VBA would be compelled to take a different stance.
Strained relations
Relations between Mr. Ambedkar and the Congress and Mr. Pawar’s NCP, which have been frigid at best, deteriorated further after the VBA chief hit out at Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge for claiming he had yet to receive any alliance proposal from the VBA.
Mr. Ambedkar claimed that his party had, in fact, written to Mr. Kharge on September 1 about the possibility of the VBA joining the INDIA alliance but had not received any response whatsoever.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the VBA allied with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM and wreaked havoc by fragmenting the Ambedkarite-minority community votes that traditionally went to the Congress and the NCP, causing the rout of Congress candidates in at least nine seats. As per analysts, this was one of the main reasons why the Congress and NCP would want to induct the VBA into their alliance.
Despite the Congress’s reluctance to ally with the VBA, its recent electoral rout in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh has forced it to rethink the possibility of an alliance with the VBA in the State.
