Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Amid suspense over Prakash Ambedkar’s entry into the Maha Vikas Aghadi for the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Friday (March 29) said that the MVA’s doors are still open for Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) as division of opposition votes need to be avoided.
Chavan said that the VBA had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on its own, resulting in the defeat of eight to nine Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidates.
His remarks came days after Ambedkar announced the names of his party’s candidates from eight Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, signalling that the outfit was no longer pursuing an alliance with the MVA comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Congress.
MVA allies and the VBA had been involved in hectic parleys over the last few months to reach an agreement on fighting the polls together. The MVA had offered four Lok Sabha seats to the VBA which the latter declined. The opposition bloc later offered one more seat to the Ambedkar-led outfit, but that did not yield any result.
Chavan claimed, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants division of opposition votes. The entire opposition needs to unite to defeat Modi."
According to the former Maharashtra chief minister, the three allies have finalised the seat-sharing deal on 45 to 46 Lok Sabha constituencies.
"Only two-three seats are left, where we feel we are in a better position. There are genuine differences," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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