“No coordination between Shiv Sena and Congress”: Prakash Ambedkar on seat-sharing with MVA

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 9 (ANI): Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) president Prakash Ambedkar on Saturday highlighted the differences in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra over seat sharing. The Aghadi which has the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SPawar) as its main constituents and is looking to get smaller parties like Ambedkar’s VBA into the fold.

“The current situation of MVA, about which I have said many times, has not stopped because of us. There are 10 seats where there is no coordination between Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and Congress,” he said while speaking to ANI.

Ambedkar added, “There are 5 seats that are being demanded by the NCP (Sharad Pawar), Congress and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray). So in total, there are 15 seats out of 48 in which they do not have coordination and because of this lack of coordination, I think their talks (on seat sharing) are not going ahead. We go to the meeting, have coffee and biscuits and request them to coordinate with each other so that we can put forward our demands.”

Meanwhile, the VBA said it will not be a part of the Aghadi rally scheduled for Saturday in Baramati nor will it attend Rahul Gandhi’s Mumbai rally on March 12 until a formal decision is reached on the distribution of seats in the MVA.

The VBA chief said, “I was not aware that today’s meeting of the VBA has been postponed. On Friday, Sharad Pawar called me and said he would not be able to attend the meeting and I got to know that this meeting has been delayed. We won’t speak to the media about the number of seats or the seats that we have asked for. We have informed the Aghadi leaders that before entering into talks with them, we were ready to contest all 48 seats and even now, we are ready to contest at least 27 seats in the state.”

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said the MVA has given a proposal to Prakash Ambedkar of the VBA and claimed that the Aghadi would win all the seats that Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi will get in the alliance.