Congress not to ally with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi in Maharashtra Assembly polls

To counter the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), the Congress has prepared the plan-B that will help them to regain them the Dalit, tribal and minority vote bank ahead of the Assembly polls.

According to a senior Congress leader, Congress Dalit leader Sushil Kumar Shinde had prepared the blueprint to counter the "false propaganda" of the VBA against the Congress and at the same time, convince the Dalits and tribal voters that VBA is a B-team of the BJP.

Interestingly, in the preceding Lok Sabha polls, VBA had bagged 7 per cent vote share with the total of votes over 40 lakh. Congress and the NCP lost about ten Lok Sabha seats because their votes got split.

"We have finalised that there should not be any alliance with VBA. There is no point growing and supporting the force that is part of the BJP. Last time, in Lok Sabha poll also, we were mentally prepared to leave six seats to Prakash Ambedkar's led front, but their demand was unreasonable. They even demanded seats like Baramati, Nanded and Solapur," said Congress spokesperson Raju Waghmare who was the part of the meet.

On the other hand, Ambedkar tweeted that henceforth the talk of an alliance with Congress and the NCP will happen at equal terms. He also said that before any talk of an alliance, Congress and the NCP should extend an apology for calling VBA a B-team of the BJP.