Ambedkar's VBA to support 7 Congress LS candidates

Mumbai : Livid over the purported stance of some of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has unilaterally offered to support 7 Congress candidates in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, here on Tuesday.

VBA President Prakash Ambedkar has written a letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on the issue and the development comes two days after the INDIA. bloc's mega-rally on March 17 held at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park here.

Referring to his brief meetings with Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi at the rally, Ambedkar claimed that “the MVA has been meeting continuously without inviting the VBA for any discussions or meetings”.

“The Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) have refused to listen to VBA’s representatives in the numerous MVA meetings and we have lost faith in both of these parties due to their unequal attitude towards VBA in the MVA,” said Ambedkar.

He reiterated that the VBA’s agenda remains unchanged – “unseat the Fascist, divisive, undemocratic BJP-RSS government.”

With this aim in mind, he offered the VBA’s full support to 7 Congress candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections “in goodwill, but also an extension of a friendly hand for a possible alliance in the future.”

Ambedkar urged Kharge to provide him the list of 7 constituencies selected by the Congress from the quota given by the MVA for whom the VBA will lend its complete ground and strategic support.

The Congress and other major MVA allies have not yet reacted to the abrupt change of strategy by the VBA as the notification for the first phase of LS elections for five seats in Maharashtra on April 19 opens tomorrow.

The seats are: Ramtek (SC), Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST), Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondiya and Nagpur (all GEN).