A day after Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar said the alliance with Shiv Sena (UBT) doesn’t exist any longer, Sanjay Raut of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party termed it as a “one-sided” and unfortunate decision.
Ambedkar on Saturday said that the VBA will announce its next move on March 26.
Speaking to reporters, Raut said when Uddhav Thackeray and Prakash Ambedkar announced their alliance more than a year back, the general elections were not on the agenda, and was formalised for the Assembly and local bodies polls. The two parties had formalised the alliance in January last year.
Saying that the alliance was made with “good intentions”, Raut said, “Ambedkar should have discussed with Thackeray before making such an announcement. It is one-sided and unfortunate.”
He also said that Ambedkar should reconsider the decision.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA), comprising Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), offer of four seats in Maharashtra to Prakash Ambedkar still remains, he added.
Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20 and votes will be counted on June 4.
Prakash Ambedkar’s VBA has been eyeing to join hands with three MVA allies for the upcoming elections. However, the seat-sharing talks with the allies have remained inconclusive so far.
Ambedkar claimed that the internal conflicts of the MVA allies doesn’t seem to end, and also alleged that the MVA never gave him proposal for four seats.
The VBA chief, however, evaded a direct reply on the status of talks between the two for the upcoming polls. “I had asked Uddhav Thackeray that Shiv Sena (UBT) and VBA should first sit together and chalk out strategy for a joint political path, but that didn’t happen. The VBA alliance with Sena (UBT) doesn’t exist any longer,” he told reporters.
If the VBA and MVA alliance takes shape, then we will see, he added.