Mumbai; The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief, Prakash Ambedkar, said his party would not join the alliance with Congress for the upcoming assembly election.
The door to discussion with Congress is now closed. We will now contest election on our own. VBA has enough number of dedicated leaders,” said Ambedkar told a press conference at the Ambedkar Bhavan, Dadar, on Monday.
However, Congress-NCP showed efforts to include VBA in their alliance for the upcoming election for which Ambedkar demanded five per cent of the seats directly from the Congress.
As Ambedkar didn’t receive any positive response, he announced to contest the election on his own, informing he will be announcing the list of candidates soon after the Ganapati festival.
“We have asked for five to six seats, especially those where the Congress have lost more than thrice. But there was barely any response from their end, thus we decided to stop,” he added.
The VBA chief also claimed, the alliance was formed on “Congressional Rules” as most of the seats shared were chalked out by the who’s who of the Congress.
“The results of the Lok Sabha election clearly reflects Congress’s capability now, because of this arrogance smaller parties have started to lose faith in their alliance,” alleged the VBA chief.
Backing Shiv Sena’s demand for the CM’s seat, Ambedkar stated, “Shiv Sena must not drop their demand for CM’s seat or else BJP will make a caricature out of Aaditya Thackeray, just like what they did two Rahul Gandhi.”
Earlier, the CM said VBA would lead the oppositions contingent after the election. On this, Ambedkar said, his party would come to power after the election.
“We have our manifesto ready. We will improve the health, infrastructure, education system and protect the farmers’ rights. The ruling tie-up has not said a single thing about their mission if they return to power,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar slammed Ambedkar, saying he had no interest in joining the Congress-NCP alliance, as he was indecisive.
“Once he said, he wanted NCP out of the alliance, then he agreed on fewer seats, then he wanted to book the CM’s seat for his party,” said Wadettiwar.
