Mumbai, Feb 11 (TOI): Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar said on Sunday his party won’t have any alliance with Congress unless it draws an agenda to “discipline RSS by ensuring that it is registered as a social or a political organisation and follows the Constitution”.
The Dalit leader said that they do not want RSS to be banned, but that Congress should come up with “an agenda to bring it under the constitutional framework”.
“We are ready to wait for the Congress response till the last moment of the nomination process. If Congress fails to share an agenda on the issue, we will field our candidates for Lok Sabha elections,” said Ambedkar, whose Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (an alliance of BBM and Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM ) has planned a rally at Shivaji Park on February 23 to announce candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Ambedkar, whose party has one MLA in the Maharashtra assembly, has demanded 12 Lok Sabha seats from the Congress-NCP combine, but the two parties have offered only two. Ambedkar said VBA will field candidates in Mumbai, Thane, Bhiwandi, Raigadh, Maval, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. “The original residents of Mumbai such as koli (Fishermen), Aagri, Mali and East Indian community and tribals have joined the VBA. Representatives of these community will be contesting the Lok Sabha polls as VBA candidates,” added Ambedkar.