Uddhav Thackeray (L) announced his party’s alliance with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. Photo: Screenshot via YouTube/Shiv Sena
A new political equation emerged in Maharashtra on January 23 after the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) formally announced their alliance ahead of the civic polls.
An alliance has been on the cards for a long time. “We have come together with the idea of ’nation first’ and to keep democracy alive,” Mr Thackeray said. Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, said, “We have come together on the occasion of Bal Thackeray’s birth anniversary to affect the politics of change in the state.”
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While the alliance is currently only between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the VBA, Mr Ambedkar said he hoped the Congress and the NCP (Mr Thackeray’s ally in the MVA) would join him. Congress and NCP have reportedly opposed taking VBA into the MVA alliance.
Municipal elections in Mumbai and some other important cities including Pune, Thane and Nagpur are likely to be held later this year.
Earlier this month, the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray suffered a fresh setback after several party functionaries and corporators of his faction in Nashik. Defection led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Shivsena of Balasaheb.