Congress and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi seal alliance for Mumbai civic polls

Mumbai, Dec 28 (PTI) The Congress and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), led by B.R. Ambedkar's grandson, Prakash Ambedkar, announced an alliance for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Sunday, with the VBA set to contest 62 of the 227 seats.

Congress will contest more than 150 seats, while some seats will be allocated to the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and RPI (Gavai), sources said.

The tie-up decision was announced by Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal and VBA state vice-president Dhairyavardhan Pundkar.

Sapkal said that decisions on alliances for the remaining 28 municipal corporations in the state would be taken at the local level, and both parties had authorised their local leaderships to take appropriate calls.

He said the Congress-VBA tie-up was a "natural alliance" based on shared ideology rather than mere electoral arithmetic.

"This is not a game of numbers, but a coming together of ideas. Both parties believe in the Constitution and in building India envisioned by it, based on equality, fraternity, and social justice," he said.

Recalling that the two parties had earlier come together during the 1998 and 1999 elections, Sapkal said that after a gap of 25 years, a new chapter had begun.

"It took time for the process, but from today, a new phase in state politics has started," he added.

VBA leader Pundkar said the alliance had been formed to stop "the divisive politics of the BJP.

He said Sapkal had taken the initiative for the alliance and maintained a positive approach from the beginning.

"In the Mumbai civic elections, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi will contest 62 seats," he reiterated.

VBA state vice-president and chief spokesperson Siddharth Mokale said seat-sharing talks in alliances were never fully satisfactory but required consensus from both sides.

Elections to 29 municipal corporations are scheduled for January 15, 2026. The formal schedule of ZP polls is awaited.

Notably, the Congress had announced to contest the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections solo.

In the 2017 BMC elections, the Congress won only 31 seats, far behind the then undivided Shiv Sena and the BJP. PTI MR NSK