In a major setback to the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Tuesday distanced itself from the MVA as an entity, but offered to support seven Congress candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Two days after he shared a platform with the Opposition INDIA bloc leaders at the public rally held at the Shivaji Park in north-central Mumbai,   VBA President Prakash Ambedkar shot off a letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and made an offer to the latter as a “gesture of goodwill and “extension of a friendly hand for a possible alliance in the future”.

Maintaining that the VBA had lost its faith in both Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar-led NCP – which are two other constituents of the Opposition alliance,  Ambedkar claimed that the MVA leaders “have been meeting continuously” without inviting VBA an discussions or meetings.

“The Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) have refused to listen to VBA’s representatives in the numerous MVA meetings and we have lost faith in both of these parties due to their unequal attitude towards VBA in the MVA,” Ambedkar said.

Ambedkar, who is the grandson of late B R Ambedkar, said that his party’s agenda remained the same – “to unseat the fascist, divisive, undemocratic BJP-RSS government”.  “With this thought, I have decided to lend VBA’s full support to the Indian National Congress on 7 seats in Maharashtra,” he said.

Ambedkar urged Kharge to provide him the list of 7 constituencies selected by the Congress from the quota given by the MVA. “Our party will lend our complete ground and strategic support to the candidates of your party on the seven seats of your choice,” the VBA chief said.

“This proposal from VBA to the Congress is not only as a gesture of goodwill but also as an extention of a friendly hand for a possible alliance in future,” Ambedkar said.

The Congress and two other MVA allies – Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) have not yet reacted to Ambedkar’s latest announcement which comes a day ahead of the notification for the first phase of LS elections for five seats in Maharashtra on April 19 .

The five seats where the Lok Sabha polls will be held on April 19 are:  Ramtek (SC), Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST), Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondiya and Nagpur (all general).Ambedkar, whose party had initially tied up with the Shiv Sena (UBT) to contest the Lok Sabha polls, has dumped the Uddhav Thackeray-led party now.

Given that he has never been consistent in stand towards the matters relating to the ongoing seat-sharing talks, Ambedkar’s latest stand does not come as a surprise. At one a stage, a miffed VBA chief had threatened to put candidates in all the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.