Mumbai: Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi had entered the fray for this year’s assembly elections in Maharashtra aggressively, with the intent to form a third front against the incumbent Mahayuti alliance and the Opposition, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The party had fielded candidates in 200 of the 288 seats in the assembly.
But with the declaration to align with a party in power on the eve of results and the failure to secure a single win Saturday, VBA has come out of the whole exercise more isolated than ever.
This is the second consecutive assembly election, where VBA has not managed to win any seat.
After the defeat in the elections, a post on VBA’s X account read: “Though we accept the mandate, the discrepancies cannot be ignored. The discrepancies should be investigated.”
Party chief Ambedkar also took to X to write: “‘Batenge toh katenge’ and ‘Ek rahenge toh safe rahenge’ were BJP’s refurbished Kamandal politics against reservations and social justice. MVA’s one-caste politics, silence on reservations further helped the BJP-led Mahayuti solidify their refurbished Kamandal narrative.”
‘बटेंगे तो कटेंगे’ and ‘एक रहेंगे तो सेफ रहेंगे’ were BJP’s refurbished Kamandal politics against reservations and social justice.
MVA’s one-caste politics, silence on reservations further helped the BJP-led Mahayuti solidify their refurbished Kamandal narrative.
VBA was the…
— Prakash Ambedkar (@Prksh_Ambedkar) November 23, 2024
A day before the results, Ambedkar had announced that his party would choose to support a party that could form the government, if VBA got the numbers.
If VBA gets the numbers, tomorrow, to support a party or an alliance to form the government in Maharashtra, we will choose to be with one who can form the government.
We will choose power! हम सत्ता में रहना चुनेंगे!
— Prakash Ambedkar (@Prksh_Ambedkar) November 22, 2024
However, VBA’s performance has only plummeted.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Ambedkar’s VBA was in talks with the MVA for a possible alliance, but they didn’t come to an agreement. The party went solo, contesting 38 seats, but it could not do much damage as it managed to secure only 2.8 percent of the vote share.
Even for the assembly elections, VBA contested alone, but not before Ambdekar extended an invitation to Maratha activist and leader Manoj Jarange Patil who refused to join hands.
Ambedkar was hoping for the consolidation of Dalit votes for him.
Earlier this month, Ambedkar had undergone angioplasty and had to stay away from campaigning for a few days.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, VBA had an alliance with All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). But later that year, during the assembly elections, the two had a fallout.
This time around, he had also urged Muslims to vote for VBA. However, that did not happen.
In the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, the party had played spoilsport for Congress-Nationalist Congress Party in at least seven seats. But in the assembly elections that year, the party could not open its account, despite fielding 236 candidates. Its vote share then stood at 5.5 percent.
