More trouble for MVA in Maharashtra: Prakash Ambedkar’s VBA issues an ultimatum, breaks ties with Sena

The VBA chief’s move is perceived as the party’s intention to go solo in the Lok Sabha polls or ally with like-minded anti-BJP or anti-Congress parties as it did five years ago. “I have given a March 26 ultimatum to the MVA. Seat-sharing must conclude by then. It cannot go on indefinitely. We are not happy with how things are progressing,” Ambedkar told The Indian Express.

On calling off the alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT), Ambedkar said it was meaningless as the Uddhav Thackeray-led party was now a part of the MVA. “An individual partnership with one of the MVA’s constituents makes no sense. All decisions must be taken collectively,” he said. Pointing out that there was a lot of ambiguity in the MVA’s functioning, he asserted that his party was keen on putting together an anti-BJP, anti-RSS front in Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said the Bhimshakti Shivshakti alliance was not politically driven and was formed for a social cause as Uddhav’s grandfather Keshav Thackeray, who was fondly called Prabhodhankar, and the VBA’s chief grandfather Dr B R Ambedkar had worked together against casteism. “We look up to Prakash Ambedkar, who is the grandson of B R Ambedkar, to reconsider his decision and make the fight against the BJP and its dictatorship a common agenda,” Raut said.

In the 1920s, Prabhodhankar took a major step to “break the upper caste hold” on the Ganesh festival by inviting an aide of B R Ambedkar to perform the puja at Dadar. This sparked an uproar and the event was called off the following year.

Following the split in the Sena in 2022, Uddhav’s outreach to the VBA was seen as a strategic move to consolidate OBC and Dalit votes. While Ambedkar was clear that the future of the Bhimshakti-Shivshakti alliance would depend on the stand Uddhav took concerning the Congress and the NCP, the Sena (UBT) chief maintained that the tie-up with the VBA would not be at the cost of his MVA partners, with whose support he formed the government in 2019. The fear of a split in the “anti-BJP” votes makes the VBA sought after by the MVA even though the party has no MLAs or MPs.

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the VBA kept everyone guessing about an alliance with the anti-BJP parties and finally went on to ally with just the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM. The party polled around 35 lakh votes and its candidates appeared to have dented the prospects of the Congress-NCP (then in alliance) in at least eight to 10 seats. In the Assembly elections held later that year, the party is said to have “divided secular votes” and damaged the Congress-NCP’s chances in at least 32 Assembly constituencies.

Senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said the MVA’s approach has always been to unite like-minded secular parties. “The VBA is an important ally and we want it to remain in the MVA,” he said. MVA insiders said the VBA’s hard bargain had not gone down well with the alliance’s leaders. A section of the Congress leaders claimed that the VBA was not interested in an alliance and that is why it was placing “unreasonable demands”.

The MVA is learnt to have offered four seats to the Ambedkar-led outfit, which has its eyes set on eight. The VBA argument is that following the split in the Sena and the NCP, the parties have been considerably weakened and all constituents of the alliance are “equal partners”.