<p>Mumbai: Accusing the Congress of doing “lip service”, veteran politician Prakash Ambedkar on Tuesday targeted Congress President and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for not taking the issue of discrepancies in the 2024 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls before the court.</p><p>The 70-year-old lawyer-activist-politician, Ambedkar, a two-time Lok Sabha MP and a one-term Rajya Sabha MP, is the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution of India.</p><p>“To be honest, Congress is just paying lip service and nothing more,” Ambedkar said. </p>.Prakash Ambedkar slams Congress, calls grand old party 'Manuwadi'.<p>“After the Maharashtra elections were announced and the discrepancies in the polled votes were found by VBA, I personally reached out and wrote to the Kharge, on January 16, 2025, to raise the issue since we believed that an united effort would be effective to take this throughout the nation. But we got no response either from Kharge or the Congress party,” said Ambedkar. </p><p>According to him, he also requested Kharge for a collaborative fight against the amendments made to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. </p><p>“After receiving no reply from the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra of my letter dated December 12, 2024, and no response from Kharge and the Congress party to my letter for an united fight, VBA decided to take this fight to the court,” he pointed out. </p><p>“Now, the question is — could not the Congress or Rahul Gandhi take this matter to the court? The Congress has a lot of senior lawyers amongst its rank, some of which have been and are MPs. Could not the Congress file a case in the court? What has the article written by Rahul Gandhi achieved other than propagation of Rahul Gandhi?,” Ambedkar said.</p><p>“If the Congress really wanted to fight this very serious issue, the Congress and Rahul Gandhi would have taken this matter to the Court like we did. What was stopping the Congress from collaborating with VBA to fight this matter?,” asked the VBA chief. </p><p>On February 3, 2025, the Writ Petition against the Election Commission of India, filed by VBA’s representative Chetan Chandrakant Ahire, was accepted by the Bombay High Court. </p><p>“The Writ Petition highlighted the discrepancies in the total votes polled and sought answers to the very same questions which I had requested the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra to furnish. I am personally arguing this case. In the first hearing, a notice was sent by the Court to the Election Commission of India. The case has been heard twice in the Court. The next hearing is on June 16, 2025,” he said.</p>
<p>Mumbai: Accusing the Congress of doing “lip service”, veteran politician Prakash Ambedkar on Tuesday targeted Congress President and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for not taking the issue of discrepancies in the 2024 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls before the court.</p><p>The 70-year-old lawyer-activist-politician, Ambedkar, a two-time Lok Sabha MP and a one-term Rajya Sabha MP, is the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution of India.</p><p>“To be honest, Congress is just paying lip service and nothing more,” Ambedkar said. </p>.Prakash Ambedkar slams Congress, calls grand old party 'Manuwadi'.<p>“After the Maharashtra elections were announced and the discrepancies in the polled votes were found by VBA, I personally reached out and wrote to the Kharge, on January 16, 2025, to raise the issue since we believed that an united effort would be effective to take this throughout the nation. But we got no response either from Kharge or the Congress party,” said Ambedkar. </p><p>According to him, he also requested Kharge for a collaborative fight against the amendments made to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. </p><p>“After receiving no reply from the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra of my letter dated December 12, 2024, and no response from Kharge and the Congress party to my letter for an united fight, VBA decided to take this fight to the court,” he pointed out. </p><p>“Now, the question is — could not the Congress or Rahul Gandhi take this matter to the court? The Congress has a lot of senior lawyers amongst its rank, some of which have been and are MPs. Could not the Congress file a case in the court? What has the article written by Rahul Gandhi achieved other than propagation of Rahul Gandhi?,” Ambedkar said.</p><p>“If the Congress really wanted to fight this very serious issue, the Congress and Rahul Gandhi would have taken this matter to the Court like we did. What was stopping the Congress from collaborating with VBA to fight this matter?,” asked the VBA chief. </p><p>On February 3, 2025, the Writ Petition against the Election Commission of India, filed by VBA’s representative Chetan Chandrakant Ahire, was accepted by the Bombay High Court. </p><p>“The Writ Petition highlighted the discrepancies in the total votes polled and sought answers to the very same questions which I had requested the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra to furnish. I am personally arguing this case. In the first hearing, a notice was sent by the Court to the Election Commission of India. The case has been heard twice in the Court. The next hearing is on June 16, 2025,” he said.</p>