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Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, August 17
The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in Maharashtra is again wooing the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi headed by Prakash Ambedkar for the assembly elections even though the latter played the role of a spoiler for the secular alliance in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.
According to sources in the Congress, preliminary talks have been held with Ambedkar.
“An equal seat-sharing arrangement between the Congress, NCP and the VBA is under discussion,” a Congress source said. Though the VBA had rejected a three-way alliance, some of Ambedkar’s associates are said to be pushing for holding negotiations with the secular front.
Sources in the Congress say, the new Maharashtra party chief Balasaheb Thorat is keen on building a coalition ahead of the assembly elections due in October. Party sources admit that morale in the Congress is low with several of its leaders defecting to the BJP and the Shiv Sena amidst talk that some remaining high profile office-bearers of the party may also switch sides in the coming weeks.
Congress leaders feel that a three-way coalition with the NCP and the VBA would help them consolidate the votes of the Dalits and the minorities behind them.
The VBA, which went alone in the Lok Sabha elections, cut into the votes of several top leaders of the Congress-NCP including then state Congress chief Ashok Chavan, his predecessor Manikrao Thakre, former minister Sushilkumar Shinde among others.
Only one candidate belonging to Assaddudin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which contested in alliance with the VBA, won the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. Ambedkar himself lost from the Akola and the Solapur seats.
The VBA however polled around one lakh votes each in Nanded, Solapur, Hatkanangale, Beed, Parbhani, Yavatmal, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Osmanabad, Buldana, Sangli and Akola Lok Sabha seats making it a formidable contender during the assembly polls, according to observers.
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