Akola: It’s Sunday morning at Yashwant Bhawan in Maharashtra’s Akola. Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) chief Prakash ‘Balasaheb’ Ambedkar is busy chalking out the campaign plan for the upcoming week with local party functionaries. In the adjoining room, a bunch of young party workers are engrossed in mapping and collating data about the state’s Lok Sabha constituencies.
A major part of the party’s strategy is to project the VBA as the prime opposition in Maharashtra. But the Congress’s Akola candidate, Dr Abhay Patil, is unfazed. For him, the VBA is no big threat. He does not even consider the party to be competition.
Like Akola, at least 13 other constituencies in Maharashtra have the VBA and the Congress directly pitted against each other. Both parties claim to be the ruling Mahayuti alliance’s main rival, while alleging that the other is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s B-team, at least on the record.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the VBA, in an alliance with All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), had attempted to tap into the vote bank of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, with the latter suffering losses in at least seven seats. The VBA and its ally raked in 14 percent of the vote share. Ambedkar, back then, had contested elections for the Akola and Solapur seats. He lost both, however, and so did the Congress candidates.
Historically, such tussles between the Congress and VBA have only ended up benefiting the BJP. This time, however, Maharashtra’s political landscape is faced with an untested situation, where the two big regional parties — NCP and Shiv Sena — have vertically split into two factions each. The ruling coalition and the Opposition are now locked in a scramble for votes.
“As a party, we have decided not to target Prakash Ambedkar personally. We tried to get him on board, but he did not agree. This might affect our alliance (Maha Vikas Aghadi) in some parts, but people have started to realise that the VBA is the BJP’s B-team,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint.
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VBA versus Congress
The MVA began talks with Ambedkar after the 2019 results, to get him to join the coalition for the 2024 elections. But after multiple meetings and back-and-forth, Ambedkar decided to walk away. He is now fielding 40 candidates of his party across the state and has started targeting the Congress.
Sticking to its strategy for the polls, VBA has called the Congress manifesto “non-inclusive” and has been repeatedly questioning the MVA, especially the Congress’ stance on the Muslim community. The party has even called the Congress “bewafaa” (dishonest) in some of its social media posts.
“If Congress wants to save the Constitution, then why did it offer only two seats to Vanchit? Whatever the Congress people say, their strength to fight the BJP is over,” Ambedkar said at a Nagpur rally on 13 April.
Speaking to ThePrint, he brought up the Congress manifesto, saying, “The Congress has always taken Muslim votes, but has not fielded any Muslim candidates. What is their stand on CAA, NRC? Why not put that in the manifesto?”
Congress’ list of promises, ‘Paanch Nyay’, is based on its guarantees for youth, women, workers, farmers and the marginalised sections. At the local level, to counter the VBA, the Congress candidates have been appealing to the people at rallies to vote for a probable winning candidate, and not waste their vote.
“If you ask me, if you don’t go to the Lok Sabha, what good is one’s claim that one worked for the people? As far as Prakash Ambedkar is concerned, I am not really worried because he has never crossed more than 2.5 lakh votes,” Patil, the Congress’s Akola candidate, told ThePrint. “Instead, we are appealing to people to vote for someone who actually has a chance to go to Parliament and speak for the people of the constituency.”
In Akola, the Congress is confident of a win, despite Ambedkar’s presence. The party believes that going by previous trends, its vote bank in the constituency accounts for around 3 lakh votes, while the Shiv Sena is bound to get over 2 lakh votes.
In Pune, too, it was expected to be a direct fight between the BJP’s Murlidhar Mohol and the Congress’ Ravindra Dhangekar, but the VBA has fielded popular local leader Vasant More, formerly the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s city chief, making it a three-way fight.
“Ambedkar must now decide who he is actually fighting — us or the BJP,” said the senior Congress leader quoted above. “We as the MVA have decided not to personally attack him. But, somewhere down the line, we knew he would not join us even this time around. So we have our plan ready.”
In the previous elections, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde was contesting from Solapur. But Ambedkar pitted himself against Shinde, and both of them lost. This time, Shinde’s daughter and MLA Praniti is contesting from the constituency, and VBA has once again made it a triangular fight.
In Shirdi, Congress’ state women wing general secretary Utkarsha Rupwate quit the party Thursday, and joined the VBA. She has been given a ticket. While Shirdi will be contested by Congress’ ally Shiv Sena (UBT), it will again be a three-cornered battle with the Mahayuti candidate (yet to be declared) and MVA.
In Parbhani, too, while Mahayuti has voiced support for OBC leader Mahadev Jankar, VBA has named a Maratha face, Babasaheb Ugale, as their candidate against MVA’s Sanjay Jadhav, another member of the Maratha community. This is likely to divide the Maratha votes in the constituency.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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