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Signs of discord in MVA after Prakash Ambedkar accuses Sharad Pawar of siding with BJP

The Congress pointed out that the VBA is in alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and not with the MVA, but Sena leader Sanjay Raut said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had approved its alliance with the VBA.

Prakash Ambedkar on Sharad pawarVBA president Prakash Ambedkar (left) and NCP president Sharad Pawar. (right) (File)

Cracks appear to have surfaced in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra even as Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar has alleged that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was siding with the BJP.

While the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has slammed Ambedkar’s statement, the Congress said VBA was in alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and not with the MVA. Sena (UBT), on the other hand, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had approved its alliance with the VBA.

“I have spoken to Rahul Gandhi about our alliance with Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. He is okay with the VBA joining Maha Vikas Aghadi,” Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Sanjay Raut told The Indian Express Friday.

Raut had met Rahul Gandhi during the Jammu leg of the latter’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. “I have a very good rapport with Rahul and that is why I went to Jammu after missing out on it earlier.”

Raut’s reaction came in the wake of statements by Ambedkar and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Nana Patole. “The VBA was not part of MVA but was in alliance with Shiv Sena (UBT). We have not received any proposal for inclusion of VBA in MVA,” Patole told reporters in Mumbai Thursday.

Disagreeing with Ambedkar’s allegation, Raut said, “The Shiv Sena does not agree with Ambedkar’s statement about the NCP chief. In MVA, everyone should adopt restraint while commenting about its own members.”

“No one should make such a statement at a time when the NCP chief played a key role in setting up the third front to take on the BJP. He is the pillar of the third front,” Raut added.

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Speaking to a TV news channel, Ambedkar recently said, “Even today, Sharad Pawar is with the BJP. Three-four days after the swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar as chief minister and deputy chief minister in 2019, in an interview published in a newspaper, Ajit Pawar was quoted saying that he did not understand why people were blaming him. He said this was decided by our party. I was the first to go… This was decided before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.”

Claiming there was a hanging threat of being lodged in jail, he had said that he would choose freedom over prison, implying that Pawar still remained with the BJP to avoid jail.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut was quick to openly criticise Ambedkar and said, “Ambedkar should mind his words. If he wants to continue the alliance, then he should stop criticising Pawar.”

Reacting to Ambedkar’s statement, NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said, “The Shiv Sena which has struck an alliance with the VBA should see it to that no such statements are made about MVA leaders by parties which are their partners. We will not approve of any such statement made against our leader. We hope Shiv Sena will take up the issue with all seriousness with the VBA.”

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NCP’s Jitendra Awhad too shot back saying his party will not tolerate “lose comments” on Pawar. “You cannot make lose comments and get away with it,” he asserted.

VBA and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) announced their alliance last week, while the tripartite MVA comprises Sena (UBT), NCP and the Congress.

The NCP has said earlier that each party in the MVA can have allies, but they will get seats only from within the quota of the party with which they have allied.
With inputs from Mumbai.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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