Positioning the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) as a vibrant Opposition party capable of taking on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) without an alliance with the Congress, VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar on Wednesday said it remained to be seen how long the different parties comprising the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc could remain united.
He reserving his harshest censure for the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Mr. Ambedkar who was addressing a public rally in Beed, demanded to know why Rahul Gandhi remained allied with Mr. Pawar given the latter’s affinity to industrialist Gautam Adani.
“While Congress leaders keep praising Rahul Gandhi, they need to teach him decision-making. On one side Mr. Gandhi is agitating against Gautam Adani. He is certainly right there. But Mr. Gandhi has made a political alliance with the [Sharad Pawar-led] NCP which is saying there is no better man than Adani…Either you are with Adani or against him. Those who cannot take political decisions are incapable of combating Mr. Modi and Amit Shah,” said Mr. Ambedkar, criticising Mr. Gandhi’s alliance with Mr. Sharad Pawar.
Defeated army
Stating that the Congress is “a defeated army”, the VBA chief, who is the grandson of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, said that Mr. Pawar’s NCP was in a state of even greater disarray.
“Even if it does manage to remain allies with Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, can the Congress stick on with [Trinamool Congress chief] Mamata Banerjee? How long will the Congress’ regional alliances endure?” he said.
Mr. Ambedkar’s relations with the Congress have grown even more frigid after the latter allegedly paid no heed to the VBA’s offer to join the INDIA bloc.
“We do not need the Congress or the NCP in our fight against the BJP. We are capable of taking on the BJP on our own,” said Mr. Ambedkar.
The prime reason for the Congress; reluctance in inducting the VBA in the INDIA bloc is that in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Mr. Ambedkar’s party, allied with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, had fragmented Ambedkarite-minority community votes that traditionally went to the Congress and the NCP, causing the defeats of Congress candidates on at least nine Lok Sabha seats.
With the aim of consolidating Dalit-OBC votes in the Marathwada region, the VBA president said that politicians from western Maharashtra were “parasites” preying on the labour of the people in the Marathwada region.
Mr. Ambedkar’s remarks were a veiled jibe not just against the ruling BJP, but primarily against Mr. Pawar’s NCP which has its base in the ‘sugar belt’ of western Maharashtra.
Alluding to the historic rivalry between politicos from western Maharashtra, with its rich sugar cooperatives, and arid, drought-prone Marathwada, Mr. Ambedkar alleged that the leadership of western Maharashtra had deliberately kept the populace of Marathwada in economically and politically backward.
“If the labour force from Marathwada did not migrate to western Maharashtra, then the sugar factories owned by politicos there would have come to a standstill. If Marathwada can create local leadership, then the region can come up economically. But the ‘Nizami’ leadership in western Maharashtra is intent on keeping the people here economically regressive. I appeal to the people here to create a new leadership and not re-elect the old MLAs and MPs,” he said.
Mr. Ambedkar further claimed that the water situation in Marathwada was exacerbated only because of an absence of planning.
“The government only promises projects for this region, but there has been no implementation for the past 20 years,” he alleged.
Taking aim at the BJP, Mr. Ambedkar claimed that as the 2024 Lok Sabha election got closer, the ruling party would attempt to create more social divisions and appealed to common people to not react to situations which were designed to provoke a Hindu-Muslim schism.
