Ahead of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Advocate Prakash Ambedkar will soon announce the party's coalition partner in the upcoming Mumbai civic polls.
The party is planning to contest from 80-90 seats in the BMC election, will hold a press conference on Monday to announce its alliance. The VBA plans to contest 80-90 seats in the upcoming civic polls in February 2022.
The VBA plans to contest seats that have a substantial number of Dalit and Muslim populations where VBA claims to have worked at ground level. Political experts and analysts, feel that even if Ambedkar commands respect and influence among urban Dalit masses, it is questionable how much of it will translate into votes for them. "Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) does not have a strong organisational network in Mumbai, at least not strong enough to win a seat. The party does not have that much strong influence in the city for the civic elections.
Hence, I believe it is too difficult to win a seat, at the same time, they are not going to make any negative impact or any kind of political damage on the bigger parties in the civic elections. It is about which party or candidate has done good work in a particular ward.
I feel Prakash Ambedkar is testing the waters in the upcoming elections, he wants to check his and his party's influence among the urban Dalit population," said Dr Surendra Jondhale, political commentator and retired professor of civics and politics at MU.
