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Vanchit Aghadi releases 37-candidate list

Nagpur: The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has released a list of 37 candidates that the party wants to field from Maharashtra and thus shut its doors on the Congress-NCP for any pre-poll alliance.

Ambedkar had promised that in case the Congress-NCP does not accept his conditions for seat-sharing, he would go it alone and announce the list of candidates for all 48 seats on March 15.

He has kept the word, but only partially, by announcing 37 names. Interestingly, Nagpur, Akola and Solapur seats do not figure in this list. There is speculation that Ambedkar may contest from Solapur as well as his home turf Akola.

The VBA candidates announced in the list for eight seats of Vidarbha are : Wardha — Dhanraj Wanjari (Wanjari community), Ramtek — Kiran Rodge Patankar (SC), Bhandara-Gondia — NK Nanhe (Dhiwar), Gadchiroli — Dr Ramesh Gajbe (Mana), Chandrapur — Rajendra Mahadole (Mali), Yavatmal-Washim — Pravin Pawar (Banjara), Buldhana — Baliram Siraskar (Mali) and Amravati — Gunwant Deopare (SC).

Ambedkar, who is also president of Bharatiya Republican Party Bahujan Maha Sangh (BRPBMS), has till date won Akola Lok Sabha seat twice, but with Congress support. He also had one term in Rajya Sabha. Except for the power of his surname and the fact that he is the grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, he is not known to wield much political clout across the state. But after a very effective statewide bandh in January, 2108, to protest Koregaon Bhima violence, his political value shot up. Though there are many who believe that the success of the bandh was the doing of urban Naxals, it was Ambedkar who had given the call got all credit.

Buoyed by the sudden prominence he got, Ambedkar capitalized on it by joining hands with Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) and scores of social and small political outfits wedded to the cause of downtrodden and backward communities giving birth to Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.

In the heat of Koregaon Bhima violence, Ambedkar had held some public meetings which drew large crowds. All this forced the Congress, which is on its knees having won barely two seats out of 48 in Maharashtra, to hold talks with Ambedkar for a pre-poll pact. The Congress set only one condition that AIMIM should not be part of the Mahagatbandhan. Owaisi backed out saying he would not stake any claim if Ambedkar was given his due.

Several rounds of talks held with the Ambedkar party failed mainly because of unreasonble and impractical conditions set by him. Now, it will be interesting to see how the Aghadi fares on its own as it is being seen as BJP’s ‘B’ team out there in the fray just to split secular votes.

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