Lok Sabha elections 2024: MVA, VBA to hold seat sharing talks

Mumbai: In a bid to cement the opposition unity, the top leadership of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) would meet veteran politician Prakash Ambedkar to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement and take on the BJP-led NDA in Maharashtra.

The meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday.

NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray and  Congress Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thorat and state Congress President Nana Patole would meet Ambedkar, the founder of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, which is a group of Dalits, Tribals, Dhangars, Kolis, Agris, Banjaras, Malis, Kaikadis and other communities.

Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha constituencies - spread over five vast regions - and seat-sharing is very complex for alliances.

A lawyer by profession, Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, is a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Akola and one-term Rajya Sabha MP.

A few weeks ago, the MVA leadership formally invited Ambedkar to be part of the opposition coalition.

However, so far Ambedkar has not yet conveyed his decision officially to the leadership of MVA, which represents the Congress-led I.N.D.I.A opposition bloc.

It may be mentioned, the VBA has a tie-up with Thackeray’s outfit, but attempts are being made to bring him under the MVA umbrella. 

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Ambedkar, who then had an electoral arrangement with Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has created a dent in the Congress-NCP prospects, leading to losses in over a dozen seats. 

“I can only say that if the VBA contests independently, we can win a minimum of six seats,” Ambedkar said last week in Nagpur. 

The VBA has submitted a list of 27 seats that it intends to contest - a demand that the MVA leadership could not concede. 

Ambekar himself may be contesting the polls from Akola in the Vidarbha region. 

The VBA has also requested MVA to field  Shivba Sanghatana founder Manoj Jarange-Patil, who is leading the Maratha reservation campaign,  from Jalna in Marathwada and Dr Abhijeet Vaidya from the Pune seat.