The Congress’ move to name Abhay Kashinath Patil, from Maharashtra’s Akola, has put a firm end to its intended friendly ties with Prakash Ambedkar’s (Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi) VBA. Though the alliance plans of the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the VBA failed, the Congress and Mr Ambedkar had extended their support to each other, especially in Akola, a seat the Dalit leader wanted to contest.
In Telangana, the Grand Old Party has announced a candidate for Warangal: Kadiyan Kavya, who switched over from K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi a few days ago. Ms Kavya is the daughter of senior BRS leader and sitting MLA Kadiam Srihari, who was also deputy chief minister in the then BRS government. Pasunoori Dayakar, the sitting BRS Lok Sabha member from Warangal, was also present at the Congress in Telangana recently.
When the MVA and VBA discussed seat-sharing in Maharashtra, the alliance was ready to give Prakash Ambedkar the Akola seat along with four others.
But after the VBA decided to go solo, the Congress – which had been pushing for a partnership – had said it would back Mr Ambedkar from Akola. Mr Ambedkar, whose party enjoys significant support among Dalits in the state, had also promised support to the Congress in several seats.
However, the national party’s decision to field its own candidate from the seat indicates that it no longer supports the VBA as promised, and vice versa.
Last week, Mr Ambedkar’s VBA had declared its intention to contest the elections on its own as it was upset over the MVA’s inability to reach an agreement on a handful of contested seats in the state. Mr Ambedkar later claimed that he had spoken to Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil and received his support.
Soon after, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena had fielded UBT and announced candidates for 17 seats, sparking speculation of an open rift within the MVA. Four of the seventeen seats were coveted by Congress.