Prakash Ambedkar: Will wait for Cong but no talaq to MIM

MUMBAI: Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar reiterated on Thursday that his Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) was keen to ally with the Congress but would not break its recent tie-up with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the state.


Ambedkar also said that while Sharad Pawar was a secular person, his party was not and that was why the BBM had a problem with the NCP. Talking to the media, Ambedkar said he was asking for 12 Lok Sabha seats in the state from 27 that the Congress had never won in the last three elections.

“We cannot leave AIMIM at this stage,” Ambedkar said. “However, we are keen to go with the Congress and our doors are always open for them till filing of nomination. We have a problem with Congress friend NCP. Party chief Sharad Pawar is secular, but not his party. The party has Sambhaji Bhide supporters.”

The Bhide that Ambedkar referred to is the founder of nationalist organisation Shiv Pratishthan Hindusthan and the BBM leader holds him responsible for the Koregaon Bhima violence between Dalits and locals on January 1. The NCP politician who supports Bhide is MP Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendant of Maratha Empire founder Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

“How can we take part in the campaign rally of Udayanraje Bhosale, who is a Bhide supporter?” Ambedkar said.

Later in the day, opposition leader in the assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and his Congress colleague Manikrao Thakre met Ambedkar at his Dadar home to discuss a tie-up. The Congress is learnt to have expressed its unwillingness to tie up with the BBM if it went along with the AIMIM. “State chief Ashok Chavan and Vikhe Patil will raise the issue with the Delhi high command,” a Congress politician said.