Snubbing Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar on Monday announced an alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) for the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election to be held in February next year.
Mr. Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, projected his alliance as an alternative to the BJP and the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi.
The VBA chief said doors were open for an alliance with both the Congress and the Shiv Sena if they so wished.
“We held discussions with the leaders of the IUML and the RJD. Seat sharing will be by mid-January,” Mr. Ambedkar said.
Neither the VBA nor its one-time ally, the AIMIM, has any significant presence in BMC.
Mr. Ambedkar also rebuked the AIMIM for not contesting on a secular plank during the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
“The OBCs within our party are not willing for an alliance with the AIMIM,” he said.
The VBA’s alliance with the AIMIM had queered the pitch for the Opposition Congress and the NCP in at least 10 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats during the 2019 general election by eating into the traditional Dalit-minority vote bank of the two parties.
However, the alliance was split wide open immediately after the general election following bickering over seat-sharing before the Maharashtra Assembly election in October 2019.
Remarking that BMC polls would be fought on development plank, Mr. Ambedkar said the plight of the employees of the MSRTC and the long strike by its workers would be a critical factor in determining the outcome of the election.
