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Updated January 24th, 2019 at 20:51 IST

Grand alliance in trouble: After Prakash Ambedkar, SP also refuses to dance to the Congress tune in Maharashtra

General elections are just a few months away. To defeat PM Modi, Congress is trying to forge an alliance with like-minded paries in all major states. Maharashtra is one such state where Congress is trying to form a grand alliance of 8-10 like-minded parties

Reported by: Dinesh Mourya
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General elections are just a few months away. To defeat PM Modi, Congress is trying to forge an alliance with like-minded paries in all major states. Maharashtra is one such state where Congress is trying to form a grand alliance of 8-10 like-minded parties. Congress has held several meetings with NCP, BSP, SP, CPI, Raju Shetty’s Party Shetkari Kamgaar Paksha, Prakash Ambedkar & others. Initially, Congress was claiming that they have managed to convince all the secular parties to be a part of a Mahagathbandhan to defeat the Modi sarkar but with each passing day, the tall claims of Congress are crumbling.

Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra unit has decided to contest alone in the state. While speaking to Republic TV, SP Maharashtra chief Abu Azmi said, we met Congress leaders in the past but they did not give respect to us. We demanded just one seat but Congress was not ready to give us that much also. That's why in a state executive meeting, all the leaders have unanimously decided to contest on 10 seats in Maharashtra as Congress is not only stretching the seat sharing issue but they are also not willing to show large heart while giving seats to the ally partners. Very soon we will convey our decision to party president Akhilesh Yadav. Its Congress’s responsibility to keep all of us together but they failed now, they should not call us ‘Vote Katuaa’ (vote-cutters).    

READ | Prakash Ambedkar Gives 7-days Ultimatum Over Seat-sharing To Maharashtra Congress. Details Here

Abu Azmi further added that if Congress gives respect to them and considers their demands then they might think again about their decision. Samajwadi Party is not the only party which is unhappy with the Congress but Babasaheb Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar has also given an ultimatum to the Congress.

In his open statement to Congress, Ambedkar said, "Today we want to tell Congress that you should give your seat sharing proposal to the Jamaat-e-Islami's Maharashtra head Moulana Siddiqui till 30th January in writing, we will not accept oral commitments. The discussion should go into the deciding stage and if we do not receive written proposal till 30th January then we will call a meeting of VBA( Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi )  & we will decide what to do further as we are free to take our decision. We will go by that”.

Prakash Ambedkar & Samajwadi Party are prominent parties in Maharashtra. Even though SP & Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh do not have a presence across Maharashtra they can definitely damage Congress’s chances in some constituencies as both these parties have a good number of followers in Dalit-Muslim dominated areas.    

READ | Prakash Ambedkar Gives An Ultimatum To The Congress On Coalition Talks

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Published January 24th, 2019 at 19:38 IST

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