Mumbai: As the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and Mahayuti alliances are busy with the rounds of meetings on seat-sharing and candidates finalisation, Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) on Saturday released its first list of candidates. The Prakash Ambedkar-led party included 11 candidates in its first list.
The elections for 288 state assemblies in Maharashtra will be held later this year. The polling schedule is yet not announced, but it is expected that voting will take place in mid-November with code of conduct coming into effect in next 15 days.
The 11 VBA candidates will contest in the constituencies of the cities like Chhatrapati Shambhajinagar, Nagpur and Nanded. The other seats includes Loha, Shevgaon, Raver, Sindhkhed, Khanapur, Dhamangaon Railway and Washim.
Prakash Ambedkar was supporting the MVA (Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), Congress) in Maharashtra during the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. However, the seat-sharing talks failed and MVA decided to contest independently.
What Prakash Ambedkar Said
Announcing the first candidate list, VBA National President Prakash Ambedkar said, "Staying true to our sacred ideology, we have given representation to the deprived, Bahujan groups with the aim of gaining true representation and political power, and breaking the hegemony of families of certain castes."
Transgender rights activist Shamibha Patil has been named the candidate for the Raver seat and Kisan Chavan, who belongs from the Pardhi community has been named from Shevgaon.
Ambedkar added that, "In the coming days, more names will be announced. We are in touch with very prominent political parties and soon more parties will join our alliance".
"After failing to man-make the riots between OBC-Maratha, mainstream parties have resorted to the old and tested method of Hindu-Muslim divide. The silence of the mainstream parties should be questioned", added Ambedkar.
