"If Prakash Ambedkar Reconciles…": Congress Leader's Seat Offer

Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan held out an olive branch to his party’s ‘almost ally’ Prakash Ambedkar today amid differences over the seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha elections. Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) was in touch with Maha Vikas Aghadi or MVA – an alliance comprising the Congress, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) for the Lok Sabha polls but the talks failed. Yesterday, the Congress announced the name of a candidate from Akola even as the MVA had earlier given the VBA a proposal for five seats, including Akola, Ramtek, Dhule and a seat in Mumbai. The Congress announced its candidate after the VBA separately declared names for some Lok Sabha seats, hinting at a rift.