Prakash Ambedkar
Credit: Facebook/@PrakashAmbedkar.
Mumbai: Congress on Sunday forged an alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), led by Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
The development could significantly reshape Mumbai’s political landscape, especially as Congress–VBA talks had failed during the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections.
Of the BMC’s 227 seats, the Congress has offered 62 seats to the VBA, while retaining 165 seats for itself and its other allies.
The alliance was announced at a press conference addressed by Maharashtra Congress president Harshavardhan Sapkal and VBA Maharashtra unit vice-president Dr Dhairyavardhan Pundkar, in the presence of AICC secretary and senior spokesperson Sachin Sawant and VBA chief spokesperson Siddharth Mokle.
Mumbai Congress chief and Lok Sabha MP Prof Varsha Gaikwad and Ambedkar could not attend the press conference due to prior commitments.
Over the past few weeks, the Congress had been in negotiations with Ambedkar, the 71-year-old lawyer-activist-politician, who is a two-time Lok Sabha member from Akola and a former Rajya Sabha MP.
“The alliance between the Congress and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi is a natural one. Both parties share similar ideological positions. We are constitutionalists who believe in the India envisioned by the Constitution, based on equality, fraternity and social justice,” Sapkal, a former MLA, said.
Referring to VBA’s forerunner, the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, Sapkal said the two parties had earlier allied during the 1998 and 1999 elections. “Twenty-five years later, we have come together again. This is not merely a game of numbers, but a confluence of ideas and values. Today marks the beginning of a new chapter,” he said.
The Congress and the VBA had also contested the recently concluded municipal council and town panchayat elections together in select districts.
With the BJP expected to be supported by the Ramdas Athawale-led RPI (Athawale), the Congress hopes the alliance with the VBA will help consolidate the Dalit vote bank in Mumbai.
On seat-sharing in the remaining 28 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, Mokle said the decision would be taken by local units.