Maharashtra: Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi wins one Lok Sabha seat, damages many

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) was said to have catalysed the Shiv Sena-BJP's defeat, paving the way for the victory of the Congress-NCP in Maharashtra. The past may have come back to haunt the Opposition Congress-NCP with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) emerging as the spoiler for it in around eight seats, contributing to the defeat of veterans like Ashok Chavan and Sushilkumar Shinde.

The VBA, which allied with the All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), also secured a major political opening after Imtiaz Jaleel of the party led by the Owaisi brothers won from the saffron stronghold of Aurangabad. He is the first AIMIM MP from Maharashtra, and from outside the party's traditional pocket-borough in Hyderabad.

Though Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, lost both seats he contested from—Akola and Solapur—his front garnered around 39 lakh votes in 48 constituencies.

The winning margin of Shiv Sena and BJP candidates is lesser than the votes polled by VBA candidates in around seven constituencies (Hatkanangale, Buldhana, Gadchiroli, Nanded, Parbhani, Sangli, and Solapur) and Ambedkar is leading Congress nominee Hidayat Patel in Akola, which was won by Sanjay Dhotre (BJP).

The VBA is now girding its loins to contest the state assembly elections. "The VBA has served as an alternative to people who were angry at both, the Congress- NCP and the Shiv Sena-BJP. It got the anti-incumbency vote from voters miffed at local dynasties and strongmen dominating politics," said VBA nominee Gopichand Padalkar, who secured over 3 lakh votes in Sangli.

A senior Congress leader said the division of votes caused by the VBA, combined with the drift in the Congress leadership, hurt their prospects. "While the Congress-NCP's base splintered, on the other hand, the BJP and Shiv Sena managed to rally their voters using ultra-nationalism, Hindutva and lack of a national alternative to Narendra Modi," he explained, admitting that this caste and religion-based consolidation would have a greater effect in the assembly elections.

"We laid down a brand of politics for the deprived and Bahujans... we shattered established political equations," said Disha Shaikh, spokesperson, VBA. Shaikh added they had given representation to castes like Vadars, Shimpis, Kaikadis, Muslims, Kolis, and Dhangars, who were feeling left out of electoral politics.

Reacting to the Congress-NCP's charges that the VBA dented their vote bank, Shaikh questioned why these parties failed to effectively serve as an opposition to the BJP- Shiv Sena. This failure had led to the electorate shifting to the VBA, she claimed.

Shaikh said the VBA would put up candidates in all 288 constituencies in the Maharashtra assembly polls due later this year.

In a statement, outgoing MP from Nanded and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Ashok Chavan said the VBA "hurt secular forces and helped communal forces win" leading to the victory of the BJP-Sena in several constituencies. Chavan, a former chief minister of Maharashtra, faced a shock defeat at the hands of Pratap Patil Chikhalikar (BJP). Here, the VBA's Yashpal Bhinge, who belonged to the Mali community, walked away with 1.63 lakh votes.

However, this was hotly contested by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who called this "politics of arrogance and entitlement" and questioned Chavan about reasons for Congress president Rahul Gandhi's defeat from Amethi and the BJP's sweep in Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

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• The VBA, which allied with the AIMIM, also secured a major political opening after Imtiaz Jaleel of the party led by the Owaisi brothers won from the Aurangabad
• It defeated veterans like Ashok Chavan and Sushilkumar Shinde