JOIN USAll is not well in Maha Vikas Aghadi
All is not well in the tri-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the wake of statements emerging from veteran politician Prakash Ambedkar, the founder of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, who is the great grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Last week, the Shiv Sena group headed by Uddhav Thackeray forged an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar’s party which has led to confusion and a war of words.
After this, Ambedkar had made repeated statements targeting the Sharad Pawar-led NCP and Congress, making the two principal MCA partners of Shiv Sena unhappy.
Ambedkar had blamed the leadership of Congress-NCP Democratic Front for the breaking down of talks for an alliance in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
About Congress, Ambedkar said: “I don't have faith in the Congress. They are focusing on the 2029 (Lok Sabha) elections. Earlier, I had demanded 12 seats (in 2019) where the Congress had been losing polls continuously, but they didn't give those.”
On NCP, Ambedkar said: “Sharad Pawar is with the BJP…after Ajit Pawar was sworn in (November 2019) as Deputy Chief Minister (along with Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister), he had said that he does not understand why people are blaming him…It was decided by our parties. I just went first. This was decided even before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.”
Ambedkar’s statement has rattled the Congress-NCP inviting strong reactions.
“VBA has an alliance with the Shiv Sena…the MVA has nothing to do with it..we have no relation with their (VBA-Sena) alliance,” state Congress president Nana Patole said.
Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut, however, disapproved of the comments on Pawar made by Ambedkar. “We don’t agree with what he had said. He must talk with respect about leaders of Congress and NCP. As far as Pawar saheb is concerned, he is one of the senior most leaders of Maharashtra in India,” he said.
Raut further pointed out that to keep the BJP away from power, the MVA was formed by the three parties with Thackeray as the chief minister. “It is Pawar saheb who is working hard to forge Opposition unity,” he said.