Congress, NCP take a step back after reports of Prakash Ambedkar's alliance with AIMIM

Former Maharashtra chief ministers Prithviraj Chavan and Ashok Chavan (Image- PTI)

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) could distance themselves from the Prakash Ambedkar-led Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) after the latter decided to join hands with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

A senior party leader told The Times of India that there could be no question of Congress having an alliance with Ambedkar if he joins hands with AIMIM.

State Congress chief and former chief minister Ashok Chavan said state Congress vice-president Manikrao Thakre had a meeting with Ambedkar and he will have a second round of talks with leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil in a day or two. Days after Ambedkar met Owaisi, he had reportedly met Thakre.

“Our aim is to secure alliance with like-minded parties. We do not know if Ambedkar will join hands with AIMIM. It will be too early to comment on the situation arising out of alliance between Ambedkar and AIMIM,’’ Chavan told the newspaper.

On September 15, Ambedkar and AIMIM announced their intention to forge an alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly elections. However, a formal structure of the alliance has not been announced.

Imtiyaz Jaleel, AIMIM MLA from Aurangabad, said the idea behind the alliance was that Dalits, Muslims and OBCs have been ignored for 70 years, have no proper representation in politics and were being treated as vote-banks.

"It is a shame on all so-called secular parties that there is no representation from the Muslim community in Parliament from Maharashtra. Everybody wants their votes but does not want to give them representation. Similar is the case for Dalits," Jaleel said, according to a PTI report.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s bickering ally Shiv Sena has criticised Ambedkar and AIMIM’s move to join hands, saying it will only help in splitting the opposition votes. The Sena has said it would fight the 2019 general elections and state elections alone.

According to a report by DNA, Congress and NCP are intending to consolidate the Muslim and Dalit votes. Following the announcement of a possible tie-up between BBM and AIMIM, Congress and NCP have also initiated talks with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP).

Congress and NCP were in an alliance in Maharashtra from 1999 to 2014, when they snapped ties ahead of the assembly polls. The two parties are already holding talks to finalise seat sharing.

In the 2014 Maharashtra assembly polls, AIMIM and BBM had won two and one seats respectively. However, they had garnered 13.16 percent and 3.64 percent vote share respectively in contested seats.

While the 2019 Lok Sabha polls are expected to happen in April-May, Maharashtra is expected to head for assembly polls in October-November next year.