Prakash Ambedkar
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) is contemplating contesting most of the seats in the forthcoming Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections.
The 70-year-old lawyer-activist politician, Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution, is a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Akola and one-term Rajya Sabha MP.
Ambedkar floated the VBA on March 20, 2018; however, so far the party has not managed to win a single seat in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls.
However, it has emerged as an important force -- and the impact of the VBA has been felt by the opposite alliances -- Maha Yuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi and before that the saffron alliance and Democratic Front.
The VBA has declared three lists and 51 candidates which include people from all communities.
According to the VBA leadership, they intend to contest all or most of the 288 seats of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
In the run-up to the polls, Ambedkar has called upon the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to get 100 MLAs elected among these communities and see the change. Besides, Ambedkar also appealed Muslims to join and has already declared 10 Muslim candidates.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the VBA, which had an alliance with AIMIM, got 14 per cent vote share and created a big dent in the Congress vote bank which impacted it and the NCP badly.
The VBA's following comprises Dalits, Adivasis, Dhangars, Kolis, Agris, Banjaras, Malis, Vanjaris, Kaikadis, Muslims, and other communities. However, before the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, the VBA-AIMIM alliance broke, but it had an impact on the ground.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Ambedkar had engaged in talks with the Maha Vikas Aghadi-INDIA bloc leadership and even shared a dais with Congress President and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, who is now Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, however, the deal did not materialise.
In 2019, in the Lok Sabha polls, the VBA had garnered 6.98 per cent vote share while it managed 5.57 percentage in the Vidhan Sabha polls. In the 2024 general elections, the vote share was 2.77 per cent.