AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi with Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Mumbai: The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) failed to repeat the 2019 magic in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra.
In 2019, in the Lok Sabha polls, the VBA had garnered 6.98 per cent vote share while it managed 5.57 percentage in the Vidhan Sabha polls.
For the Lok Sabha polls, VBA had a tie-up with Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) which broke ahead of the Vidhan Sabha elections.
In Lok Sabha polls, it made its presence felt in 2019 when it damaged the prospects of the Congress-NCP Democratic Front in around 10 seats and one for the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.
This time around, Ambedkar was alone with two formation of three parties against him - the Maha Vikas Aghadi (I.N.D.I.A.) comprising Congress, Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maha Yuti (NDA) comprising BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
Ambedkar floated a Third Front and created dent only in five seats Akola, Beed, Buldhana, Hatkanangle and Mumbai North West.
Barring half a dozen seats, VBA has put up or supported candidates in most of the constituencies.
Ambedkar himself contested from Akola, however, lost to Anup Dhotre of BJP while Dr Abhay Patil of Congress was in second position. Dhotre got 4,57,030 votes while Patil managed 4,16,404 and Ambedkar (2,76,747).
Ambedkar has humbly accepted the defeat. “I humbly accept Akola’s and the rest of Maharashtra’s mandate in the Lok Sabha elections. I want to thank every VBA worker for their tireless efforts and concrete dedication towards the party. I would like to thank the newly-elected MPs, who defeated the BJP-led NDA alliance. I am disappointed that the party did not win, but I have not lost hope,” he said.
Ambedkar’s son Sujat Ambedkar posted on X: “We are not a moment. We are a movement. Jai Bhim!”
A veteran of state politics, Ambedkar (69) is the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution of India.
A lawyer by profession, Ambedkar is a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Akola and one-term Rajya Sabha MP.
Committed to the Dalit-Ambedkarite-Republican cause, Ambedkar has floated Bhatia Bahujan Mahasangh and later Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), which included various groups of Dalits, Tribals, Dhangars, Kolis, Agris, Banjaras, Malis, Kaikadis and other communities.
Ambedkar was working out a seat-sharing deal with I.N.D.I.A. bloc and even met Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, however, it did not work out and the VBA chief walked out at the last minute.
AIMIM loses lone seat
Journalist-turned-politician Imtiyaz Jaleel who had won the lone seat of Aurangabad in Maharashtra, for Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), lost this time.
In a direct contest in 2019, he had defeated Chandrakant Khaire of undivided Shiv Sena by a margin of 4,492 votes. However, Jaleel, this time around faced Khaire and as well as Employment Guarantee Minister Sandipanrao Bhumre of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Bhumre won the polls with 4,76,130 votes while Jaleel got 3,41,480 votes while Khaire got 2,93,450 votes. The Prakash Ambekar-led VBA had put up five-time Corporator Afsar Khan, who got 69,266 votes.
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