VBA, MNS may dent bigger players in Maharashtra

The Maharashtra assembly elections are being seen by many as a straight contest between two alliances. But there are two non-allied players, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), who have the potential to upend poll calculations in many seats and hurt major players.

The MNS will contest 105 seats while the VBA is contesting 274.

The VBA is headed by BR Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar, who rose to prominence in the aftermath of caste clashes at Maharashtra’s Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018 that killed one person and triggered statewide protests.

The outfit spoiled the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance’s chances in as many as eight constituencies in the 2019 general elections by polling at least 100,000 votes. In each case, the number of votes garnered by the VBA was higher than the victory margin of the eventual winner.

To be sure, the VBA has parted ways with its Lok Sabha ally, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which won the alliance’s only Lok Sabha seat: Aurangabad. But the party is banking on its traditional support base among backward castes and Dalits.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the newly formed outfit polled roughly 4.1 million votes, roughly 7.6% of the total votes polled in the state and only behind the two major alliances.

“Though the VBA’s strength has depleted, it still retains the potential to damage the Congress-NCP even now,” said political analyst Hemant Desai.

The votes polled by VBA candidates led to defeat of two former chief ministers, Ashok Chavan in Nanded and Sushilkumar Shinde in Solapur.

Earlier this year, talks between the VBA and the Congress-NCP broke down after a disagreement over seat sharing.

Noted Marathi writer Laxman Mane, who quit the VBA recently, said the VBA held a bigger threat for the CongressNCP combine because the outfit had indirectly benefited the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance in some seats. “The VBA candidates are still in the position to get more than 10,000 votes in several constituencies. This is enough to upset the Congress-NCP calculations and ensure the win for the ruling alliance,” said Mane.

Ambedkar said he should not be held accountable for the decline of the Congress-NCP combine.