In a setback for the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Thursday rejected the invitation extended to it by the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) for seat-sharing talks for the Lok Sabha polls.
VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar, whose party has tied up with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena to contest the Lok Sabha polls, spurned the invite from the MVA – comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar – within hours after the MVA sent him an invite to attend the seat-sharing talks later in the evening
Ambedkar, whom the MVA had long kept on tenterhooks by keeping him away from its seat-sharing talks, did not take kindly the joint Opposition front’s invite to him for talks after weeks on end. So much so that he sent off a stern letter to Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole asking him “not to play mind games” with the people of Maharashtra.
“It seems that you are playing mind games with the people of Maharashtra or perhaps there is a ‘locha’ in your brain,” Ambedkar stated in his letter alluding to a popular dialogue on ‘chemical locha’ (chemical muddle) from the Bollywood comedy blockbuster, “Lage Raho Munnabhai”(2006).
The invite sent to Ambedkar to attend the seat-sharing talks -- convened at a five-star hotel in Mumbai on Thursday evening –had been signed by Patole,, NCP (SP) state President Jayant Patil and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut.
Declining the invite sent on a MVA letter head, signed by its top leaders, Ambedkar said that instead of Patole, the letter must have been signed by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, along with NCP(SP) President Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray.
Ambedkar, who is the grandson of late B R Ambedkar, said: “The other two signatories to the letter other than Patil i.e., have clearly told me in multiple meetings that the Congress high-command has not bestowed you with any decision-making authority for alliance and coalition-related decisions in Maharashtra”.
Miffed by the delay in the finalising the seat-adjustments by the MVA for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Ambedkar had earlier this month asked his party’s ally Shiv Sena (UBT) to “come clean” on the electoral understanding it had reached with two other MVA partners –Congress and NCP (Sharad Pawar).
Fearing that his party might be short-changed in the “seat-sharing” pact for 48 Lok Sabha seats to be arrived at among three MVA constituents in Maharashtra, Ambedkar had on January 8 sought to know Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray as to what kind of seat-sharing arrangement was being reached among the three MVA partners –Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP ( SP).
As per the understanding reached among the MVA partners, the VBA will be allotted a seat or two from the Shiv Sena (UBT) quota.
Within hours after Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut went to town saying that the VBA could contest the Akola LS seat and none of the MVA allies would object to it, Ambedkar upped the ante on the lack of clarity in the seat-sharing formula being worked out among the MVA partners.
Joining issue with Raut, Ambedkar had wanted to know as to why the SS-UBT kept harping only on the Akola seat when he could contest any seat in the state. The VBA chief, it may be recalled, was elected twice from Akola and later served a term in Rajya Sabha.
“Why are you talking about only Akola?... Let anybody contest it, I can stand for election from Mumbai, or Pune, or even from Badayuni (Badaun) in Uttar Pradesh… Nobody can stop me… But first you spell out to us what agreement has been reached with the Congress and NCP (SP)?,” Ambedkar had asked.