Exodus in VBA as ‘Ambedkar is aiding BJP’

Nagpur: Several senior workers and leaders of Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) from Vidarbha on Tuesday quit the party accusing their party chief of betraying the Ambedkarite cause. The split in Aghadi even before vote count for the Lok Sabha begins could be a major setback for the party’s founder.
Talking to reporters here, VBA spokesman and general secretary of Bharatiya Republican Paksh Bahujan Maha Sangh (BRPBMS) Milind Pakhale said he and scores of activists who were associated with Ambedkar for last two decades were no longer part of the game plan to favour the BJP-RSS on which Ambedkar had embarked.
“Aghadi would not win any of the 47 seats it contested, but would contribute to BJP’s victory in at least six Lok Sabha seats by diverting Dalit, Halba and Dhangar votes that would have otherwise gone to the Congress,” said Pakhale.
He said he had no clue why Ambedkar had played into the hands of the BJP-RSS but all objections raised by senior party men in internal meetings were shot down. “If you can’t toe my line, you are free to leave was what he told us in such meetings,” added Pakhale..
“The Aghadi was a futile exercise. Ambedkarites who rebuff use of Dalit tag, equally detest the regressive epithet of “Vanchit’ (meaning deprived or hapless). But he never heard us. We could have rebelled before the elections. But then Ambedkar would have blamed us for the failed experiment. So, we were patient. But on May 23, he will be exposed,” said Pakhale.
Asked if he knew of any secret pact between BJP and Ambedkar, Pakhale said he was not aware of it but said the public perception that Aghadi (with Owaisi-led AIMIM as constituent) worked as B team of BJP was not unfounded.