Ambedkar Poses Threat To MVA Candidates, Uddhav Sena More Vulnerable

The threat posed by the Republican leader Prakash Ambedkar is worrying leaders of the Opposition-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) since his Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) had caused narrow defeats of seven Lok Sabha candidates in 2019. Known for his vacillating political postures, Ambedkar had kept MVA on tenterhooks till the last moment this time, too. Now that he has unilaterally announced the list of his candidates, the Congress, the Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray and the NCP led by Sharad Pawar are in a bind. While most VBA’s candidates this time are just locally known, the followers of Ambedkar are likely to vote en masse, perhaps at the cost of the MVA candidates. In 2019, the major beneficiary of VBA’s step was the unified Shiv Sena although it lost the then Aurangabad seat to AIMIM, which had fought the election jointly with VBA. As the Sena is splintered now and Ambedkar is going alone, his repeated allegation that MVA has treated VBA emissaries disrespectfully during seat sharing talks, could pose a serious threat for Uddhav’s nominees. Time and again, VBA has been described as the BJP’s “B Team” and every time, Ambedkar has refuted the allegation vehemently. Whatever the truth, his decision to field candidates had indirectly benefited the saffron party. Nanded, Buldhana, Parbhani, Gadchiroli, Solapur, Hatkanangale and Sangli seats were won by the BJP-Sena alliance, thanks to the VBA, in 2019.