Amid the developing political scenario, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Monday set a timeframe of seven days for the Congress to decide whether it wants the Prakash Ambedkar-led outfit to join the opposition alliance.
On 1 September, when the I.N.D.I.A meeting was being held in Mumbai, VBA spokesperson Priyadarshi Telang had shot off a letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge questioning the commitment of I.N.D.I.A to take on the RSS-BJP in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls in Maharashtra.
The VBA has garnered 6.98 and 5.57 percentage vote share in the Lok Sabha election, 2019 and Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Election, 2019 respectively, it had pointed out.
Close to a month after the I.N.D.I.A meeting, VBA spokesperson and state Vice President Siddharth Mokle gave a time frame to seven days for the Congress to revert else it would contest all 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
“It has been almost a month since the e-mail was sent and made public on Telang’s X handle but there has been no response from Kharge or any of his associates in the Congress. The VBA would like to know if it is ever going to receive a reply. If not, then Congress should explain to the people of Maharashtra why it does not want to involve the representation of Vanchits and Bahujans in the alliance. It should explain why a party whose popularity and voters’ base has multiplied since 2019 is not in the alliance,” Mokle said on Monday.
“The Congress should put an end to all the fabrications and false stories being run from their quarters and its newly-acquired trolls on social media that VBA received the invitation and declined it,” he said.
“If the Congress wants to reply to our e-mail and ally with VBA, they can reply in the next 7 days. Else, we will go ahead with our plan of contesting all the 48 seats as we are already in the middle of finalising the candidates for all the 48 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections,” he added.
Published 25 September 2023, 10:11 IST