Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) president Prakash Ambedkar on Saturday announced that his party will contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats in the Lok Sabha election that is scheduled next year.
Prakash, grandson of BR Ambedkar, also announced that he will be contesting from the Akola seat.
“The VBA is all set to contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats. We have started preparations in that direction. And we will be touring the state from October,” he told The Indian Express.
Last year, the VBA entered into an alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray. He, however, expressed disappointment, over lack of communication from Congress regarding a pre-poll alliance.
“The Congress-NCP-Sena (UBT) has not taken any formal decision on alliance and seat sharing. When there is uncertainty among the three partners within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), how are we going to put up a united Opposition front?”
Ambedkar went on, “I have learnt that a section within the Congress is not keen on a pre-poll alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT). They argue that a pre-poll pact with Thackeray’s party will fetch them ten per cent votes, but the Congress will lose 25 per cent of its traditional votes. So, there are serious issues within the Congress about the alliance with Sena (UBT).”
Prakash said the VBA is not getting into the MVA’s issues. “We have an alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT). But in the absence of any clarity, we cannot be just hanging and doing nothing. Time is running out. There are no meetings. Whether it is the Congress, NCP or Shiv Sena (UBT), each are caught up in their own organisational issues. In such a situation where there is no communication or progress, we have decided to chart our own political roadmap. We have decided to contest all 48 seats alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Ambedkar explained, as quoted by IE.
In the 2019 elections, the VBA contested in 47 seats. It polled 6.92 per cent votes and did not win a single seat.