In a major development Bahujan Vanchit Aghadi (BVA) leader Advocate Prakash Ambedkar has ruled out any possibility of alliance with the Congress while accusing them of not willing to involve a variety of social groups in the power.
He also announced that his front shall announce list of 48 candidates by Saturday (March 15).
“We had been talking to the Congress regarding possibility of grand alliance against the BJP. Meanwhile, since decision was not coming from them, we had announced named of 22 candidates. Then, after the talks resumed, we proposed that Congress should now speak only about the remaining 26 seats. When they declined that we proposed that the Congress should treat the 22 candidates given by us as their candidates. They were not ready even for that and hence we have now decided not to go ahead with the talks with Congress anymore,” Adv Ambedkar has said.
“Several proposals were made but they hit a roadblock. We cannot negotiate further with the Congress leadership as by declining all the proposal they have shown that they are least interested in sharing power with the have-nots and the social groups that have always been deprived of power,” he added while speaking to reporters at Akola.
Adv Ambedkar, who is the grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar, had on Tuesday indicated that he is likely to contest from Solapur Lok Sabha seat, against senior Congress leader and former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, apart from his usual constituency of Akola.
The BJP had won the Solapur seat against Shinde in the 2014 and the party had been bullish over the seat this time also. Ambedkar’s candidature is likely to help the BJP and put the Congress in dock, local leaders have said.
Meanwhile, Ambedkar has forged an alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) and has been holding rallies across state. Though there had been reports of discord within the alliance, Ambedkar has said that the differences would be sorted out.