MUMBAI: Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) leader
Prakash Ambedkar on Monday "offered" 144 seats to the
Congress in case the latter wanted an alliance with his front for the state assembly polls scheduled for October. The Congress however stressed the need for secular forces to come together and noted that VBA should come up with a serious proposal.
In mid-July, Ambedkar had offered 40 seats to the Congress after its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. It has now increased this to 144, thus taking the ratio to 50-50%.
Maharashtra has 288 seats in all.
On Monday, Ambedkar said, "Although we are offering them (Congress) 50% of the seats, they are not interested in allying with the VBA and are trying to push us towards the BJP."
The Congress claimed talks were still on with the VBA. "We feel all opposition forces should unite to put up a strong fight against the BJP. Talks are on with VBA, but VBA should offer us a serious proposal," said Sachin Sawant, state Congress spokesperson.