UNION MINISTER and RPI(A) chief Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday urged Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar to formally join the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance instead of giving it “indirect support”. “The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar will only divide votes, which will result in gains for the BJP-Shiv Sena candidates. So, instead of giving indirect support to BJP-Shiv Sena, Ambedkar should openly join the alliance,” Athawale told mediapersons. He added that VBA will not win a single seat, as it was not possible to win elections all alone. “It will not have any major impact on state politics. The rallies of Ambedkar might be getting a huge response, but so are mine. The response to rallies will not convert into votes for Ambedkar,” Athawale said. “The BJP has assured me place in the Union Cabinet after coming to power again,” he claimed. “If Ambedkar joins the alliance, he too will be made a minister. Politics and elections are for power, so staying away from power doesn’t make sense,” he added. Athawale said that there were attacks on the Dalit community in Bhima Koregaon last year but fortunately, it did not escalate. “It was an attack on my community but I could not protest being a minister. Ambedkar had called a bandh and I directed my party workers to participate in the bandh, as it was for the community for which I have been fighting so long,” he added. “The relation between me and Ambedkar is not that bad but I don’t know why are we not coming together. a wrong impression is being created that the Dalit community is angry with the NDA government,” said the Union MoS for Social Justice and Empowerment. He added that as there was a ‘Modi wave’ in the 2014 elections, this time, there is wave of development. Claiming that note ban was in the interest of the poor, Athawale said: “Citizens might be a little angry due to demonetisation. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the decision after going through the thesis of Babasaheb Ambedkar, which has said that black money can increase and then there will be no money for development. Ambedkar had concluded that the currency needs to be changed every 10 years. Modi studied it before implementing.”
