According to the 2011 Census, Maharashtra has 11.81 percent scheduled caste population — VBA’s primary vote bank. The Shiv Sena UBT had announced an alliance with the VBA last year, though it was not made clear at the time how the party would be accommodated within the MVA.
“Today, we have taken a lot of positive decisions and one of the most important decisions was to expand the MVA. We are going ahead strongly and more and more friendly partners are joining us,” Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, told the media at the end of Tuesday’s MVA meeting.
In addition to Sanjay Raut, the meeting was attended by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Vinayak Raut, Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad from the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, and Balasaheb Thorat, Ashok Chavan, Nana Patole, Varsha Gaikwad from the Congress. Seat-sharing for the 2024 elections was also discussed, MVA sources told ThePrint.
The expansion in the MVA is significant because of the setbacks that the INDIA bloc has been facing lately.
Earlier this week, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pulled out of the alliance and returned to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA. This came soon after Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Punjab CM and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann announced that the parties would fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections alone in their states.
Tuesday’s MVA meeting comes months ahead of two major elections — the general election, expected in April-May this year and the Maharashtra assembly polls, expected later in the year. Maharashtra has 48 parliamentary seats and a 288-member assembly.
On his part, former MP Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of India’s Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar, has said he had received no official letter of inclusion from the MVA. But he also clarified to ThePrint that he would attend future MVA meetings.
“Though Shiv Sena UBT and NCP can take decisions from Maharashtra, we still don’t know whether (Maharashtra Congress president) Nana Patole has the authority to take decisions on behalf of All India Congress Committee. Despite that, we will be attending the meetings of MVA, whenever they are held,” he told ThePrint.
A senior Congress leader who didn’t want to be named told ThePrint that seat-sharing talks within the MVA were still ongoing and there were six-eight seats that required more negotiations.
“Seat sharing talks are progressing well, but still it is stuck at six-eight seats. For example, we want Hingoli in Marathwada which is in Shiv Sena quota, but it is not yet solved. However, in the coming meetings, that will be solved. From our end, the final decision will be taken by Delhi leadership,” he said.
On the inclusion of Ambedkar’s party, the leader said that the Congress had emailed him the invitation and even “put it out on social media”.
“We even spoke to him over the phone and he agreed to come to the next meeting personally,” the leader said, adding that the Congress was “very happy” to have him on board.
The MVA’s next meeting is scheduled for 2 February.
Also Read: Cracks exposed in Maharashtra ruling alliance as NCP, BJP leaders question CM over Maratha OBC quota
Ambedkar’s inclusion
Despite Tuesday’s expansion talks, there appear to be trouble in the MVA camp already.
The source of the latest tensions, according to Ambedkar’s post on social media platform X (previously Twitter), was the alleged treatment meted out to his party representative, VBA state vice president Dhairyavardhan Pundkar, at the meeting.
“Even though VBA’s state vice president was not given due respect in the MVA meeting and VBA is not aware nor informed by AICC [All India Congress Committee] or by Ramesh Chennithala [Congress leader] whether Nana Patole is having any authority to sign any letters for including VBA in MVA alliance, we will join MVA in the next meeting since VBA’s priority is to defeat the BJP-RSS,” the post said.
Ambedkar’s post came after Pundkar claimed that he was asked to leave the room and sit outside during seat-sharing talks.
Sanjay Raut, however, denied the allegations. “There is some misunderstanding. VBA leaders were with us. He even had lunch with us. You can check the footage. There is no question of insulting anyone,” he said.
This isn’t the first time that Ambedkar and the Congress haven’t seen eye-to-eye. Last September, Ambedkar criticised the Congress for not responding to his party’s express interest in joining the MVA.
“On September 1, VBA wrote a letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge reiterating our interest to join the alliance and that our doors are open. Today is September 25 and we have received no correspondence from Kharge or the Congress yet. It is unlikely that the involved parties will reach a consensus soon. We cannot afford to wait or stuck in their faux pas. We will contest on all 48 seats if necessary,” Ambedkar said in the post.
Earlier this week, Ambedkar told Muslims at Maharashtra’s Washim to not vote for the Congress. On Tuesday, after the remarks sparked a row, he clarified that he meant that “if they (the opposition MVA) fight together (as one block), then Muslims should vote for the alliance, because BJP doesn’t even look at them”.
Last week, Ambedkar refused Congress’s invitation for seat-sharing talks saying that Patole had no authority to invite him and demanding that the Congress high command reach out to him instead.
He, however, appears to have softened his stand after AICC Maharashtra in-charge Chennithala clarified that Patole, along with leaders like state legislature party leader Balasaheb Thorat and former chief minister Ashok Chavan, had been authorised to hold talks with VBA and other “like-minded parties”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: As Prakash Ambedkar seeks place in INDIA as equal partner in MVA, allies say ‘top leaders to decide’