Congress, VBA seal alliance for BMC polls
MUMBAI: The Congress party and Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Sunday cemented the alliance for Brihanmumbai Municipal corporation (BMC) elections in Mumbai. According to the alliance agreement, out of total 227 seats of BMC, the VBA will contest the 62 Seats while remaining 165 seats will be contested by the Congress party. The alliance between Congress and VBA was agreed in the presence of Maharashtra Congress President Harshvardhan Sapkal and VBA State Vice President Dr Dhairyavardhan Pundkar. Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal called this alliance as a new Chapter in state politics. Sapkal said Congress and the VBA had agreed to an alliance for the BMC, while decisions on the remaining 28 municipal corporations in the state would be taken at the local level. He said the announcement, made on the Congress partys foundation day, was significant for the alliance. The alliance between the Congress and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi is a natural one. Both parties share the same ideological foundation. Both are committed to constitutional values and to building an India envisioned by the Constitution. Their stance on equality, fraternity, and social justice is identical, and neither party is willing to compromise on constitutional principles, he added. He further said that both the parties allied in 1998 and 1999 elections. Now, after 25 years, we have come together once again. While the process took some time, a new chapter begins from today, Sapkal added. This is not a game of numbers, but a meeting of ideas. Meanwhile, Pundkar said that both parties have come together to stop the divisive and destructive politics of the BJP. He noted that Harshvardhan Sapkal took the first step towards the alliance and maintained a positive approach from the very beginning. Pundkar also said that the party will contest 62 seats in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. VBA Vice President Siddharth Mokale said that discussions on seat-sharing in any alliance are rarely fully satisfactory, but a consensus must be reached at some point. He stated that positive discussions took place from both sides for the alliance. While the alliance for the Mumbai Municipal Corporation has been announced today, decisions regarding other municipal corporations will be taken positively by the local leadership of both parties, Mokale said.
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