Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi Releases 1st List For Lok Sabha 2024: What Does This Mean For MVA And Mahayuti In Maharashtra?

The Maharashtra-based Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on 27 March announced the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

In a press conference held in Mumbai, VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar said that the party is also open to the idea of lending support to the OBC Bahujan Party led by Prakash Shendge.

When asked whether declaration of candidates independent of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)- the coalition of opposition parties in the state, should be construed as VBA's exit from the latter, Ambedkar said that he will answer such queries only on or after March 30.

These developments come after VBA's talks with the MVA comprising Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) for seat sharing in upcoming Lok Sabha polls failed to bear any result. 

The political party which campaigns for the rights of Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) also said that they will ensure adequate representation to minorities such as Muslims and Jains as well in its list of candidates for the upcoming polls. 

Apart from this, VBA chief Ambedkar also said that he had met the Maratha reservation agitation leader Manoj Jarange on 26 March and urged him to join hands with VBA.

Maratha leader Jarange in the recent past had announced that the agitation committee would be fielding Maratha candidates from each constituency as a mark of protest against the ruling coalition for not including Marathas in the OBC category.

Here is the first list of VBA’s candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha 2024 polls:

Bhandara Gondiya- Sanjay Kewat

Gadchiroli Chimur (ST)- Hitesh Madavi

Chandrapur- Rajesh Bele 

Buldhana- Vasant Magar 

Amravati (SC)- Prajakta Pillewan 

Wardha- Prof Rajendra Salunkhe

Yavatmal- Khemsingh Pawar

In the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency, which is supposed to go for polls in the 1st phase on 19 April, VBA chief Ambedkar said that the party will support INC candidate Vikas Thakre. Thakre will be contesting against BJP’s sitting Member of Parliament and Union Roads and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

A Challenge To MVA As Well As Mahayuti

VBA’s decision to tread alone has sent the MVA leaders in jitters as its similar stance in the 2019 general elections is said to have led to a major split in the Congress and NCP’s Dalit and Muslim vote-banks.

For instance, in the Akola Lok Sabha seat during the 2019 general elections, Prakash Ambedkar stood second only to the wining candidate of BJP- Sanjay Dhotre, surpassing INC candidate Hidayatullah Patel by 24,478 votes.

Similarly, in other Lok Sabha seats such as Nanded where INC has been traditionally strong, the defeat of INC candidate and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in 2019 is attributed to the splitting of sizeable number of Dalit votes between INC and VBA.

Chavan, who recently joined BJP, had lost to the saffron party's winning candidate Prataprao Chikhalikar in 2019 by a difference of 40,148 votes. At the same time, VBA candidate Prof Yashpal Bhinge, who stood third, had secured 1,66,196 votes. Political observers had said then that had the INC secured a pre-poll alliance with VBA and managed to keep the Nanded seat with itself, Chavan's defeat could have been avoided.

Notably, VBA asserting itself independently also means an increasing challenge to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Mahayuti coalition in the state. This is so because VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar is said to have a large base of followers in Lok Sabha constituencies like Akola, Amravati and Chandrapur. These constituencies are part of the Vidarbha region which is considered to be a bastion of the BJP.

Of the eight seats for which VBA has announced its candidates, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur and Chandrapur are up for polls in the first phase on April 19. The last date for withdrawing nominations filed for the same is March 30.

If the opposition MVA fails to patch up with VBA before the last date to withdraw nominations, the constituencies mentioned above will witness a triangular fight between the candidates of the ruling Mahayuti, VBA and MVA.