Lok Sabha elections 2024: Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar on Tuesday announced that his party would lend support to Congress candidates on seven Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. He wrote a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to declare VBA's "full support" to the grand old party's candidates on seven seats of "Congress' choice".
Taking to X, Ambedkar posted the letter, and said, "I have decided to lend VBA's full support to the Congress on 7 seats in Maharashtra, and requested Kharge ji to enlist me the names of 7 constituencies from the quota allotted to the Indian National Congress in the MVA. VBA will lend its complete ground and strategic support to candidates of the Congress on 7 seats of Congress' choice. This proposal from Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi to the Indian National Congress is not only in goodwill but also an extension of a friendly hand for a possible alliance in the future."
He said that this proposal from the VBA to the Congress is "not only in goodwill but also an extension of a friendly hand for a possible alliance in the future".
MVA's ultimatum to VBA
Amid suspense over seat-sharing formula of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition alliance has given an ultimatum to Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and asked the party to convey its decision on seat-sharing by 7 pm on Tuesday (March 19), sources said.
The MVA has told the VBA to inform whether the four seats proposed to the party is acceptable to it or not.
“Or does VBA want to give any new proposal? Information about this should be given soon,” sources said.
Deadlock over seat-sharing
Shiv Sena (UBT) Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut said on Friday (March 15) that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has offered four Lok Sabha seats to the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), which is for the latter to consider.
Sanjay Raut seemed to point a finger at Prakash Ambedkar for the current deadlock in the MVA seat-sharing talks in Maharashtra, saying “now, it's up to the VBA to consider the proposal” (of four Parliamentary seats).
However, Ambedkar again accused Raut of lying before the media, and said that there are a total of 15 seats out of the 48 in the state on which a serious stalemate continues among the MVA allies- the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (SP), and the Shiv Sena (UBT).
“There are at least 10 seats which both the Congress and SS (UBT) are claiming, and another five constituencies which all the three partners are rooting for, and none of them are willing to concede even one seat,” claimed Ambedkar while speaking with media in Amravati.
