Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi denied the plans of alliance with Congress or Nationalist Congress Party in the forthcoming Maharashtra elections. The party is set to contest on all of the 288 seats in the state.
The list of candidates and the alliance partners will be out by September 26.
Earlier, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar has expressed his desire to form an alliance with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. Responding to this, Prakash Ambedkar blocked all such avenues of the coalition. It was also observed that the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi had reduced the seats of Congress and NCP in the recent Lok Saha elections of 2019.
However, the party leader said that the party is open for collaborating with the AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) party. Prakash Ambedkar said, “We are open to a dialogue with AIMIM for an alliance for Maharashtra polls.”
Previous collaboration attempts with AIMIM-
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen had tired to work out with Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). But the alliance could not be formed due to the issue of ‘seat-sharing’.
He also said that his party had offered Congress 144 seats but the party did not respond back.
Speaking further, Prakash Ambedkar said that if his party comes to power, he will propose an idea to divert water to aid the water-scarce areas. The proposal includes diverting the water from dams in the Sahyadri (Western Ghats) to drought-affected regions of Maharashtra.
Important Dates for Maharashtra Polls-
- The detailed notification will be issued on September 27.
- Filing of nominations for will begin from September 27 to October 4.
- Scrutiny of applications will be done on October 5.
- Nominations withdrawal can be done till October 7.
- Elections will take place on October 21.
- Counting of votes will be done on October 24.
Things to look out for in upcoming Maharashtra Polls-
A coalition of Congress party and NCP has also decided to contest about 123-125 seats each respectively. State Congress President Balasaheb Thorat announced that his party will publish a list of first 50 candidates on September 20.
Talks of BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is also going on. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had said that the seat formula has been finalized and the decision will come out soon.
Meanwhile, AIMIM has also released two lists of candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra polls.
TIW’s Take-
Maharashtra elections are slated for October end. All parties can be seen as fully charged with much-needed enthusiasm. BJP is eyeing to grab the power again, with a bigger majority this time. While other parties such as Congress, NCP and etc. are hoping to bag a comfortable score of seats to give the saffron party a stiff competition.