Mumbai: A bit of greater than two weeks earlier than the BMC polls, the Congress entered into an alliance with Dr BR Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi Get together (VBA) and signed a seat-sharing settlement on Sunday.
The Congress mentioned the tie-up is for Mumbai solely and a call can be taken on the native stage for the remaining 28 municipal firms going to polls in Maharashtra.
Of the 227 seats within the BMC, the Congress will area candidates in 165 seats and the VBA will contest 62 seats. “It is a pure alliance between Congress and VBA. Each observe the structure and have the identical ideology,” Congress state president Harshwardhan Sapkal instructed mediapersons.
With this partnership, the Congress hopes to faucet into the Dalit vote financial institution. The BMC polls are scheduled for January 15, with counting of votes scheduled for the subsequent day.
The agenda of the Indian Nationwide Congress and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi is to construct the India envisioned by the Structure.
: Trainer Harsh Vardhan Breakfast
President – Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee pic.twitter.com/wRedGdWjLN— Maharashtra State Meeting (@INCMaharashtra) December 28, 2025
Final month, the Congress additionally tied up with VBA for the Nanded Municipal Company elections. Member of Parliament Ravindra Vasantrao Chavan mentioned The partnership “has the potential to broaden considerably right into a broader settlement” sooner or later, the corporate mentioned in an announcement.
The battle over India’s richest municipality is shaping as much as be an fascinating one, because of an unlikely alliance that has shaped to combat it. Whereas Mr. Mahayuti is in alliance with the BJP and the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is combating alongside him, Mr. Uddhav Thackeray is shaped a workforce His partnership together with his estranged cousin and former rival Raj Thackeray is being talked about as they be part of forces to win the ‘Marathi Manu’.
Curiously, the BJP and its second Mahayuti ally Ajit Pawar’s NCP; combat individually. Sharad Pawar-led NCP is but to announce any partnership.
Nonetheless, the connection between Congress and the VBA has been fraught with friction.
Within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the VBA allied with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), hurting the probabilities of the Congress-NCP coalition successful at the least seven seats.
The alliance with AIMIM collapsed forward of parliamentary elections later that yr, and the VBA saved successful The vote share was 4.5%, and the variety of contested seats (236 out of 288) was 5.5%.
In January 2023, Ambedkar and Uddhav Sena entered into an alliance. Forward of the 2024 parliamentary vote, the VBA participated in seat-sharing talks with the opposition coalition MVA. Nonetheless, negotiations broke down and Ambedkar later determined to contest elections alone.
Nonetheless, within the 2024 Indian Parliament polls, the V.B.A. The vote share has decreased as much as 3 p.c.
The VBA contested towards the MVA in final yr’s parliamentary elections, however did not win any seats or votes. It went down additional As much as 2.8%.
In response to the Congress, the get together stays a part of the MVA, which additionally contains Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena-UBT and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP) faction.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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