Mumbai, June 8 Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar on Saturday pointed accusing fingers at the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra for his party's disastrous showing in the just-held Lok Sabha elections.
While accepting the people's verdict humbly and without complaints about the voters, Ambedkar said in a statement that now the VBA -- which contested solo in around 40 Lok Sabha seats -- will concentrate on the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections due in October.
"We shall introspect on our failures. But, it is not rocket science to understand that some elements in the narrow-minded MVA deliberately did not include the disadvantaged VBA into their alliance. We were invited to some meetings for publicity. We fell into their trap and miserably failed to convince the voters of our humiliation," admitted Ambedkar.
He pointed out how the VBA had led the Ambedkarite movement and the struggle to save the Constitution, "but some of the major parties practiced soft Hindutva and remained silent on the constitutional amendments affected during NDA-1 and NDA-2 regimes".
"When the INDIA bloc realised that it had no real agenda to confront the NDA-BJP, it used the name of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and the fight to save the constitution, which was our philosophy and campaign. The INDIA-MVA convinced the voters that Dalits, tribals, Muslims, OBCs could help the fight against the BJP, but in reality they only used their votes to save themselves," said Ambedkar.
The INDIA-MVA parties have taken the votes of all deprived and minorities, but only time will tell whether they will justify the support they got from these oppressed masses, the VBA chief added.
Hinting at discrimination right from the start, Ambedkar recalled how during the initial seat-sharing discussions, the MVA was willing to offer only 2-4 such seats where the VBA did not get more than one lakh votes in 2019.
He said that given the kind of results, no party will dare to change the constitution or indulge in any other discriminatory practices as the deprived sections of society have expressed their sentiments against it, due to the great struggle on their behalf led by the VBA.
In the coming months ahead of the Assembly elections, Ambedkar said that the VBA will engage in a greater way to build stronger relationships with the voters, and the party would rebound with great strength.
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