How Prakash Ambedkar's VBA denied MVA victory in four Maharashtra seats

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the VBA's presence in the ring was blamed for the defeat of eight Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) nominees, including former chief ministers Ashok Chavan (Nanded) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Solapur). Ambedkar, at the time, had tied up with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which won one Lok Sabha seat in the state.

Ambedkar, who is the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, had contested from Akola and Solapur and lost both seats. The VBA-AIMIM alliance walked away not just with the anti-incumbency votes of Dalits and Muslims but also those of the smaller OBC (Other Backward Classes) groupings, such as the Alutedars, who are otherwise left out of the larger power matrix.

Before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) had tied up with the VBA. However, the VBA's alliance with the larger MVA had fallen through. Eventually, the VBA contested 35 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state and secured over 1.58 million votes, as against over 4.2 million votes in 2019. The party supported the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) in seats like Kolhapur, Baramati and Nagpur, and Independents in Bhiwandi, Sangli and Yavatmal-Washim.

In Mumbai North West, Amol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) lost by a razor-thin margin of 48 votes against Ravindra Waikar of the Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde. Here, Parmeshwar Ramshur of the VBA netted 10,052 votes. In Hatkanangale, D.C. Patil of the VBA secured 32,696 votes in a four-cornered contest that was won by Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane. Former MLA Satyajeetaaba Patil Sarudkar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) lost by 13,426 votes. Former MP and farmer leader Raju Shetti got 179,850 votes.

Mane's party colleague Prataprao Jadhav, who has been inducted into the Narendra Modi-led Union cabinet as a minister of state with independent charge, secured a fourth term from Buldhana, perhaps because of the presence of the VBA in the ring. Jadhav won against Narendra Khedekar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) by a margin of 29,479 votes, but farmer leader Ravikant Tupkar, who contested as an Independent, got 249,963 votes and the VBA's Vasantrao Magar 98,441 votes.

In Akola, Ambedkar polled 276,747 votes, which was more than the victory margin of 40,626 for the BJP's Anup Dhotre against Dr Abhay Patil of the Congress.

Ambedkar tweeted on X (formerly Twitter), denying the allegations that the VBA was the "B-team" of the BJP. "…why shouldn't I fight elections? Does India have a two-party system in existence?" he asked. Ambedkar pointed out that while he criticised the Congress, the BJP came in for most severe criticism. "The Bahujans need to understand that the BJP and Congress are two sides of the same coin," he said.

"It was due to them (Congress) that the regional parties lost in other states. Will they call themselves a B-team [of the BJP]? They fought Lok Sabha seats without having the requisite strength in some states," said Siddharth Mokle, vice-president and spokesperson of the VBA. "This is not a two-party system but a parliamentary democracy where all political parties have the right to contest elections. The issues related to the oppressed and downtrodden classes remain unresolved to this day, which is why the VBA was formed," he added.

A senior Congress leader said the VBA's impact on anti-incumbency votes was lesser than in 2019 but a section of Dalits would always vote for it. And according to Atul Londhe, spokesperson, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), "The people have avoided a division of votes and voted collectively in favour of the INDIA front. They have voted for saving the Constitution and democracy. This has led to our success."

Unlike other leaders of the Buddhist Dalit-dominated Republican Party of India (RPI), Ambedkar has a wide social base. He is known for his ability to stitch together a social coalition of diverse forces that can stand up to the entrenched classes and challenge the status quo. In the 1990s, Ambedkar built a rainbow coalition at Kinvat in Nanded, and developed a base in the demographically-diverse Akola district in Vidarbha, which he represented twice in the Lok Sabha (1998 and 1999).

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