Ambedkar says VBA still willing to hold talks with MIM, says it’s the latter who has shut door on alliance talks

Pune: In a bid to clear the misgivings that the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has had over the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) closing its doors on its estranged ally (MIM), the VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar on Monday argued that it was the MIM that had slammed the door on VBA over alliance talks.

Speaking to TheNews21.com, the VBA chief remarked “We (VBA) have never shut the door on a possible alliance with the MIM. It is they (MIM) who have closed the doors and locked them. The keys of the doors are with them only. We are always open for discussions”.

Ambedkar expressed the VBAs willingness to contest the Assembly polls in alliance with the MIM. Issuing an ultimatum to the MIM, he however disclosed that the VBA would announce its final list of candidates within the next three days. The VBA leader claimed that several Muslim community organizations had lent their support to the VBA for the upcoming elections indicating that the VBA had its Plan B ready just in case the MIM did not respond positively.

Announcing that while he would not be contesting the ensuing October 21 Assembly polls, the VBA leader said that his party would continue with its strategy of ‘social engineering’ by giving tickets to representatives of all communities. Ambedkar expressed confidence that the VBA would perform well in the polls. “The VBA had received positive response in a number of regions in Maharashtra in the recent Lok Sabha polls. We are willing to take people from all sections of the society. Our strength has grown in several constituencies,” claimed Ambedkar.

Prakash Ambedkar’s original political outfit the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh and the MIM had forged the VBA alliance 11 months ago ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The alliance which was then christened as VBA was perceived to be force to be reckoned with in the state politics as it managed to split the Dalit-Muslim vote bank of the Congress-NCP opposition and seriously damaging there electoral prospects in the process.

But, like the proverbial short-lived wedding, the MIM filed for divorce earlier this month accusing the VBA of offering just eight seats out of the 288 Assembly seats. Despite the fact that the lone MIM MP Imtiaz Jaleel won the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat with the support of the VBA.

In a recent statement issued by Jaleel the MIM in-charge of partys Maharashtra unit signaled that his party was snapping ties with Ambedkar’s VBA after “prolonged discussions over two months, and that both the leaderships had failed to arrive at a respectable seat sharing figure”. The MIM had demanded that the VBA allocate100 seats to it, Jaleel had dubbed the Ambedkar’s offer as “simply unacceptable” and “unjustified.” Despite the MIM officially severing its ties with the VBA there have been signs of a thaw in their strained ties from both Ambedkar and Jaleel, leading to speculation that both estranged allies may well come together to forge a pre-poll alliance.

It may be recalled that the VBA-MIM alliance in the recent 2019 Lok Sabha elections had seriously damaged the prospects of the opposition Congress-NCP in at least 10 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats splitting their traditional Dalit-minority vote banks. Although the VBA-MIM alliance managed to win just the lone Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat, it caused some major upsets in the state ensuring the defeats of Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti in Hatkanangale (Kolhapur), senior Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde in Solapur and Ashok Chavan in Nanded Lok Sabha constituency.