Responding to a letter of Opposition MVA inviting him to a meeting for finalising the seat sharing formula between the MVA allies, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) leader Prakash Ambedkar has written to state Congress chief Nana Patole, alleging that he is playing mind games with the people of Maharashtra. He also refused to attend the meeting, stating that the VBA will attend the meeting only if the chiefs of all the three parties invite VBA for the meeting. In his letter, Ambedkar said that Patole has not been given any authority by his party's high command to decide on forging alliances in Maharashtra and hence the signatories in any invitation to VBA has to be the presidents of the respective parties in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, who are Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Asking whether the AICC or the Congress high command allowed Patole to take any decision pertaining to coalition and alliances in Maharashtra, Ambedkar said in his letter: “Yesterday, in a press conference in Aurangabad, our chief spokesperson Siddharth Mokle very clearly said that the signatory in any invitation to VBA has to be the presidents of the respective parties in the Maha Vikas Aghadi - Shri Uddhav Thackeray, Shri Sharad Pawar and Shri Mallikarjun Kharge. Send us an invitation with respect and signed by the presidents of the respective parties, namely Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar) and Congress in the MVA. Or, if VBA is called for a meeting by one of the following - Shri Ramesh Chennithala, Shri Rahul Gandhi, Smt Sonia Gandhi or Shri Mallikarjun Kharge - we will attend the meeting with no hesitation.” In the letter, which he posted on social media platform X, Ambedkar lashed out at Patole. "It seems you are playing mind games with the people of Maharashtra or perhaps there is a ‘locha’ in your brain. On one hand, the AICC in-charge for Maharashtra, Shri Ramesh Chennithala, in a press conference on Tuesday, January 23, at Congress Bhawan in Pune, where you were sitting beside him, explicitly stated that Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi will be included in MVA once the elections are announced. And, on other hand, you are posting invitations signed by yourself. The other two signatories in the letter have, concisely and clearly, shared with me in my multiple meetings that the Congress high command has not bestowed you with any decision-making authority for alliance and coalition-related decisions in Maharashtra. In the meetings with Shiv Sena, I have been told that both Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party correspond directly with either Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge and does not keep you in the loop because you do not have authority in decision-making in both MVA and INDIA.” Earlier in the day, an invitation letter having signs of state Congress president Nana Patole, NCP state president Jayant Patil and Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut was sent to Ambedkar to join the seat-sharing talks set to be held on Wednesday afternoon in Mumbai.
