Prakash Ambedkar-led VBA joins I.N.D.I.A as Congress, MVA agree on seat-sharing

New Delhi: After its negotiations with the RJD and the AAP, the Congress on Tuesday held talks with its allies in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh on seat sharing for the Lok Sabha elections and green-lighted the induction of the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) as an ally.

Sources said a decision was taken to accede to the demand for the inclusion of the VBA in Maharashtra at the meeting of the Congress’ National Alliance Committee with the Shiv Sena (UBT) the NCP. Both NCP and Sena have been insisting that VBA be included in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the I.N.D.I.A bloc.

After the nearly two-and-half-hour meeting, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut told reporters that they discussed every single seat and there was agreement among them. However, he refused to reveal the number of seats each party would be contesting in.

“I want to assure everyone that we will fight elections together. We have no issues in seat sharing,” he said. Sena has been demanding 23 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra while the Congress has been eyeing around 20 seats.

With the VBA entering the alliance, the MVA will have to give two seats to Ambedkar’s outfit. There has been speculation that Sena and Congress would contest around 20 each seats and leave around ten seats for the NCP and the VBA.

On Uttar Pradesh seats, sources said there were no fireworks in the less-than-an-hour meeting, which was attended by Ramgopal Yadav and Javed Ali Khan from the SP side and Mukul Wasnik, Ashok Gehlot, Ajai Rai, Mohan Prakash and Avinash Pande among others.

Sources said SP leaders wanted to know which seats the Congress planned to contest from in the Lok Sabha elections. However, Congress leaders said in-charge Pande has just taken over and though he has done some homework on seats, he is yet to finish it. It was then decided to hold a second meeting on Friday.

The SP leaders indicated that they are ready to be flexible to reasonable demands from the Congress. Sources said SP has in mind a maximum of around 10 seats for Congress and a reasonable number for the Jayant Singh-led RLD.

Though there was no mention of BSP during the formal meeting, sources said there was an informal chat among leaders about the Mayawati-led party. Sources said the SP reiterated its reservation on the BSP while Congress leaders insisted that they have not opened a line of communication with Mayawati.