Prakash Ambedkar loses both seats
Prakash Ambedkar said that the Congress had already conceded defeat before the beginning of the elections.
Mumbai: By not letting the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) into their grand alliance, the Congress-NCP combine has suffered a great loss in Maharashtra. As per the voting share of the VBA till 7.15 pm Thursday, it ate into the votes of the Congress-NCP combine. In over a dozen seats, the VBA polled 50,000 to 274,384 votes.
While VBA founder Prakash Ambedkar lost from Akola and Solapur; he contested against senior Congress leader and former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde in Solapur.
On the other hand, his alliance partner, the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen- fielded its sitting legislator Imtiyaz Jaleel in Aurangabad and he won. Mr Ambedkar had already announced that the VBA would contest all 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. He said that his party had fully focused on the Assembly election, knowing fully well that it would suffer defeat in the general elections. “I don’t have any regrets of losing Akola and Solapur,” the VBA leader said.
When asked whether the party would ally with the Congress-NCP in the upcoming Assembly elections, he said, “We are going to have a brainstorming session. Then we will make our stand clear whether to have an alliance or not.”
Mr Ambedkar said that the Congress had already conceded defeat before the beginning of the elections.
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