Setback to Congress: Fourth alliance shapes up in Maharashtra as BSP, SP and Raju Shetti begin talks

After a series of setbacks for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi which saw in-fighting among its top leaders in Gujarat and Punjab, and lost its potential ally Prakash Ambedkar in Maharashtra,  the party is likely to suffer another jolt.

In Maharashtra, talks between the Samajwadi Party has soured as the Congress has not relented to Akhilesh Yadav's party's demand for a single seat in the state for the Lok Sabha polls, sources said.

Following this, a fourth alliance is likely to be formed between the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the state's prominent farmers' leader Raju Shetty's party, the Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathan are in talks 

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After Uttar Pradesh, the BSP and SP had joined hands in Madhya Pradesh, Mayawati had given her approval for her party to form alliance with non-BJP and non-Shiv Sena  parties. The scenario could well lead to the formation of a coalition between parties of Bua and Bhatija. 

Wednesday is the final day of SP's ultimatum to Congress to agree to its demand, and as per sources the nation's oldest political party has not blinked. 

Raju Shetty's party has alo warned of moving away from Congress' mahagathbandhan if their demand for number of seats are not met. 

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Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar has also ruled out the possibilities of joining the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra. This has come days after the anti-BJP front reached out to the head of  the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh for an alliance with them for the Lok Sabha elections 2019. 

Making an announcement in Maharashtra's Akola district, Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of the architect of the Constitution late B R Ambedkar, said that all options of alliance talks with Congress and its ally NCP in the state have come to an end, adding that he can't go ahead with it. 

READ | Big Jolt To Congress & NCP In Maharashtra: Prakash Ambedkar Rules Out Alliance, Says 'no Option Of Talks With Cong'