VBA can win 6 Maha LS seats solo, fight on all 48 if need be, claims Prakash Ambedkar

Nagpur (Maharashtra): Amid the finishing touches being given to the seat-sharing talks by MVA constituents, VBA President, Prakash Ambedkar, claimed on Friday that his party can bag at least six seats independently in the Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections and it was also prepared to field candidates in all 48 constituencies if need be.

An MVA ally, the VBA had claimed a couple of days ago that it was in a ‘winnable’ position in 27 of the 48 parliamentary constituencies in the state and had submitted its list of those seats, besides several other conditions like certain candidates, etc, to the alliance partners.

In a brief media interaction here, Ambedkar, the grandson of the Chief Architect of the Indian Constitution, said that Shiv Sena-UBT and Congress were engaged in a tussle over seat-sharing, though they have denied it.

“We (VBA) are still considered outsiders… Our talks will begin only after they resolve their differences. However, the VBA can bag at least six Lok Sabha seats on its own strength. We are also prepared to field our candidates in all 48 constituencies if the seat-sharing talks and alliance doesn’t work out,” declared Ambedkar.

The VBA’s support for the MVA is considered critical as the latter is facing a big challenge from the ruling MahaYuti alliance of the Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP.

Responding cautiously to the latest contentions by Ambedkar, the MVA allies said that he had held discussions with AICC General Secretary, Ramesh Chennithala, NCP-SP President Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena-UBT President and former Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray.

In case there are any major differences over certain constituencies, the top leaders of the three main MVA allies will take a final call, they averred, conceding that the clock was ticking as the Election Commission of India is likely to announce the poll schedules shortly.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the erstwhile Congress-(undivided) NCP combine had suffered damage to its vote bank in at least a dozen seats when the VBA was in alliance with the AIMIM.

However, after the VBA-AIMIM partnership crashed before the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Congress-(undivided) NCP partnership again soared and it captured power in alliance with the Shiv Sena (undivided) led by Uddhav Thackeray, which had snapped ties with the BJP over ‘unfulfilled promises’.