Raut, a former state minister, stressed that Congress would have to create its own "social engineering" model to hold its own in the polls
Admitting that attempts by the Congress to ally with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) may come to naught, newly appointed state Congress working president Nitin Raut said the party was trying to create a larger sociopolitical coalition of anti-Sangh Parivar forces for state polls.
Raut, a former state minister, stressed that Congress would have to create its own "social engineering" model to hold its own in the polls.
A former three-term MLA from North Nagpur, Raut is one of the five working presidents of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee under Balasaheb Thorat. He is also the chairman of All India Congress Committee's Scheduled Castes department.
"Congress is trying to strike an alliance with VBA. But considering his style of working, we doubt if Prakash Ambedkar will join us. I feel he may not ally with Congress. But we have no problems in making attempts," said Raut.
He said the Congress was trying to build a wider coalition of political forces "who want to protect the Constitution and are against the ideology of the BJP and RSS."
"Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us the Constitution and the BJP is trying to wreck it. We are trying to bring together those who want to protect it and democracy at large," said Raut, claiming that had Prakash Ambedkar allied with the Congress earlier, he would have held a high-level constitutional position.
Though BJP and Shiv Sena swept the state in Lok Sabha polls, the subtext of their success is the performance of VBA, which fought in an alliance with AIMIM. Though Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar, lost both seats he contested from – Akola and Solapur –his front and the AIMIM garnered around 42 lakh votes in 48 seats. The Congress-NCP combine sees this as a contributor to its defeat in about eight seats.
"We will have to undertake a social engineering model by fielding candidates from all castes and religions, and take all small and larger political formations along," Raut said.
FRESH INROADS
- The VBA’s presence is said to have contributed to the defeat of Congress heavyweights like former chief minister Ashok Chavan (Nanded) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Solapur)
- While its ally NCP won four seats, with a party supported independent winning one, the Congress could get just one seat in Maharashtra
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 "Prakash Ambedkar (l) and Asaduddin Owaisi (r)")
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