NAGPUR, MARCH 16: Senior Republican Party of India leader and the newly-elected MP, Prakash Ambedkar has said that the Congress-Republican Party of India (RPI) alliance in State was valid only for the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections and would be applicable to next state assembly polls, only if the Congress expressed such desire.Ambedkar was addressing a press conference here on Sunday, following his visit to Danode village in Yavatmal district, where two political groups clashed on Thursday, leading to two deaths.About alliance, Ambedkar said that when the alliance with Congress was forged, no discussions were centred on State Assembly polls, hence, it would not be proper for him to comment on that issue. However, he said, that if the Congress wished so, there would be no problems as regards the alliance for the assembly polls. He said he had tried to bring the Janata Dal and the Communist Parties in the alliance fold, during the recently-concluded polls. However, due the rigid stance of theseparties regarding seat sharing, the alliance could not materialise.The RPI leader further described news reports appearing in a section of press that the Bharatiaya Janata Party has offered ministerial berths to RPI if the party supported the BJP government at Centre, as false. He said that there is no question of supporting a party, against whom the RPI candidates were elected. If it so happened, there will be no meaning to the efforts to defeat the BJP-Sena alliance in State, he said.Ambedkar also said that R S Gavai, MP, whose authority as the president of the RPI is fraught with legal squabbles, has no right to issue a letter nominating the leader of the opposition party in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), to anyone, as the election commission had given him (Gavai) the authority to function as the RPI president only uptil the conclusion of the recent Lok Sabha polls. He was referring to Gavai's letter nominating the the leader of opposition in NMC, after the mayor-in-council system came inforce. Ambedkar said that due to legal squabbles, the organisational structure of the RPI is not in force. It will come in force only after fresh organisational elections are held.Thus the letter issued by Gavai, post Lok Sabha polls, when he (Gavai) had already lost his authority to function as the RPI president, as per the Election Commission ruling, has no meaning, Ambedkar added.Saying that about 60-70 villages in Yavatmal district were sensitive, Ambedkar demanded that a multi-party committee, including district-level leaders of the BJP, Congress and RPI, be constituted to look into the situation. He alleged that the killing of two Dalit villagers, in the clashes between the groups of Shirish Kadam and Dhanraj Thombre, were planned murders. He alleged that the former group had political backing and demanded that those involved be externed from Yavatmal and Wardha districts.Ambedkar said the RPI would start agitation on tehsil level, if the state government did not grant work under the EmploymentGuarantee Scheme (EGS), within 15 days. He said that while crop production had been severely affected in 28 districts, the state government had yet to declare them drought-hit. Similarly, the villagers are not getting work under EGS scheme and the government is not releasing the grant of Rs two per day, as per rule, to these villagers. The RPI will take out morchas to protest against the government's indifference, he said.
