Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar.
Credit: PTI Photo
Gondia: Dalit leader and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader Prakash Ambedkar on Friday claimed that his party's talks for electoral tie-up with the MVA alliance of the Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) failed as he was offered only two Lok Sabha seats.
Congress and BJP are "two sides of the same coin," he said at a campaign rally for Sanjay Kewat, VBA's candidate from Bhandara-Gondiya constituency in eastern Maharashtra.
"We are against the Narendra Modi government's ideology, therefore we tried to form an alliance with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), but they offered us only two seats," said the VBA leader who is the grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar.
"Had we accepted the offer and lost (in the elections), it would have become difficult for us to run the organisation. That is why we did not form a tie-up with them," he said.
It was better to contest independently and strengthen the VBA, Ambedkar added.