X: @the_news_21
Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) president Prakash Ambedkar announced on Wednesday that he won’t be joining Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ in Mumbai. Ambedkar emphasized that his party should first receive an invitation to join the opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc and the state-level Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Rahul Gandhi initiated the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, commencing from Manipur on January 14 and extending from east to west. He recently extended invitations for the yatra’s Maharashtra leg, scheduled to enter the state from Nandurbar district on March 15 and conclude in Mumbai on March 20, covering six districts.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Ambedkar expressed his willingness to join the march but only as an alliance partner. “I would join the yatra but not before becoming an alliance partner, else it will make no sense for us,” he stated, emphasizing a point conveyed in his two-page letter.
Ambedkar released the letter to Rahul Gandhi on Facebook and X on Tuesday evening, expressing frustration that the VBA hadn’t been inducted into the INDIA alliance or the MVA despite repeated communications to Congress president Mallikaarjun Kharge. The letter highlighted the irony of the invitation, stating, “Your invitation says that ‘You are an important pillar of the INDIA Alliance.'”
The letter further conveyed, “It would be difficult for me to join your Yatra without the long-awaited invitation to join both INDIA and MVA… Joining you in your Yatra will lead to speculations of an alliance, which has not been materialised and will have negative implications.”
While the Congress and the other two MVA constituents, Shiv Sena (UBT), and the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), have expressed openness to joining hands with Ambedkar’s party, they believe the VBA is seeking a disproportionate share of power. The VBA is pushing for the allocation of 12 out of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats.
