Mumbai civic polls: Congress ally VBA fails to get candidates in 20 seats

Mumbai: The much-hyped alliance between the Congress and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi for the Mumbai civic polls suffered a ground reality jolt when it was revealed that the Prakash Ambedkar-led VBA lacked candidates to contest in 20 of 62 seats allocated to it.

With the deadline for filing nominations for the January 15 elections ending on Tuesday, the VBA 'disclosure' may require Congress to rework the poll strategy.

The 143-62 seat-sharing formula was announced on Sunday between the Congress and VBA for the 227-member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. It was decided to allot some seats to the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and RPI (Gavai) faction.

The VBA informed the Congress that it didn't have candidates in 20 seats and has "returned" them, a Congress leader said.

Reacting to the development, Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam stated he sympathises with the voters of Congress in 20 wards.

The VBA has some pockets of influence among Dalit voters in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra. The party, led by Dr B R Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar, mainly derives its strength from Navboudh (neo-Buddhist) electorate.