<p>After an initial snub, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) founder Prakash Ambedkar has scaled up its offer to Congress for a tie-up and agreed to work on an allocation of 144 seats for Assembly polls scheduled for October.</p>.<p>This translates to 50% strength of 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.</p>.<p>In July, VBA has offered Congress just 40 seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the VBA had damaged the prospects of Congress and NCP.</p>.<p>In fact, two former chief ministers - Ashok Chavan (Nanded) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Solapur) lost the polls because of VBA candidates.</p>.<p>Ambedkar himself contested from two seats - Akola and Solapur, but lost. However, journalist-turned-politician Imtiaz Jaleel, the candidate of AIMIM, that had an alliance with VBA won the Aurangabad seat.</p>.<p>However, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that VBA must come out with a serious proposal.</p>.<p>The Congress and NCP are contesting in alliance and senior leaders are working out a seat-sharing formula. </p>
<p>After an initial snub, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) founder Prakash Ambedkar has scaled up its offer to Congress for a tie-up and agreed to work on an allocation of 144 seats for Assembly polls scheduled for October.</p>.<p>This translates to 50% strength of 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.</p>.<p>In July, VBA has offered Congress just 40 seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the VBA had damaged the prospects of Congress and NCP.</p>.<p>In fact, two former chief ministers - Ashok Chavan (Nanded) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Solapur) lost the polls because of VBA candidates.</p>.<p>Ambedkar himself contested from two seats - Akola and Solapur, but lost. However, journalist-turned-politician Imtiaz Jaleel, the candidate of AIMIM, that had an alliance with VBA won the Aurangabad seat.</p>.<p>However, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that VBA must come out with a serious proposal.</p>.<p>The Congress and NCP are contesting in alliance and senior leaders are working out a seat-sharing formula. </p>
