VBA Makes More Demands, Wants Maratha Quota Activist as MVA’s Joint Candidate

Mumbai: Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has set several conditions to join the Maha Vikas Aghadi of Congress, Shiv Sena UBT and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). It has sought that Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil should be the alliance’s common candidate for the Janla Lok Sabha seat along with a number of other demands.

The VBA has also given a list of 27 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, where it has already made preparations to contest. It has asked the MVA to specify how many of those 27 seats will be given to the VBA.

The MVA on Wednesday held its fourth meeting over seat sharing at a five star hotel in South Mumbai.

VBA spokesperson Siddharth Mokle told this newspaper that although they have submitted a list of 27 seats to the MVA, it does not mean that they are demanding all the seats. “The MVA should inform us how many seats they are going to offer us from these seats,” he said.

Asked whether these conditions would derail their talks, Mr Mokle said that the MVA should understand this. “We had demanded MVA’s list, which they did not provide us. That is why we have given our list and asked them to provide the seats (from those seats to us),” the VBA spokesperson said.

In a statement, the VBA said that the MVA constituents have maintained secrecy about what has been discussed among themselves, which has left further discussions with the VBA hanging and delayed seat sharing decision. Due to the absence of any clear communication and having received no official invitation, the VBA started gearing up to contest with full force in case an alliance was not formed, the Ambedkar-led party.

According to the VBA, the MVA agreed to sit for another meeting to discuss the VBA’s demands after having an internal discussion amongst the MVA constituents.

The VBA has also put conditions including at least 15 OBC candidates, candidature of Dr. Abhijeet Vaidya from the Pune Lok Sabha Constituency as the MVA’s common candidate along with Jarange in Jalna and at least three Muslim candidates. “All the parties forming the MVA should give a written commitment that none of the parties nor their elected representatives would join the BJP pre or post-polling,” the VBA’s proposal said.

Responding to VBA’s demand of Jarange’s candidature, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that the quota activist is not a political leader. He informed that there will be one more meeting among the NCP founder Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Congress leaders and VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar, which will be the last one. “After that meeting, they will hold a joint press conference and announce the seat sharing formula,” he said.