Cong-NCP talks with Prakash Ambedkar turn acrimonious

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, January 22

Negotiations between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party with Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) leader Prakash Ambedkar has turned acrimonious with the latter threatening to go it alone for the Lok Sabha elections.

Ambedkar told a television channel recently that the Grand Old Party was reluctant to share power and continued to remain arrogant.

Though Ambedkar had earlier announced that his party would contest the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM), leaders of the Congress and the NCP hope he would join the coalition against the BJP in Maharashtra.

Congress party president Ashok Chavan had earlier told reporters that his party was in touch with Ambedkar and hoped to stitch up an alliance with the BBM.

Sources say, the Congress is keen on fielding Ambedkar from Akola, which it would allot to BBM from its quota under a deal with the NCP.

However Ambedkar is said to be angling for more seats.

Last week AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said at a rally in Nanded that his party would not contest the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra were Ambedkar given a respectable number of seats by the Congress-NCP coalition.

Ambedkar has tied up with a number of groups representing people from the Scheduled Castes and Tribes under the banner of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).

"We are open to an alliance with the Congress so that we can stop the BJP-RSS from returning to power with their agenda of changing the constitution," Ambedkar has been quoted as saying.

The grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, who had been written off by major political parties, bounced back into mainstream politics last year after he helped organise huge protests across Maharashtra against the attacks on Dalits at Bhima-Koregaon.