In Maharashtra, Congress, NCP fail to strike a deal with Prakash Ambedkar's party

Assembly elections are looming in Maharashtra and all the four major political parties have started planning their poll strategy. While the ruling BJP has announced to fight the Assembly elections in alliance with the Shiv Sena, the Opposition Congress and NCP are left with no other options but to fight together. After the humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and the NCP have been trying to bring Prakash Ambedkar's party on-board but seems like they have failed to seal the alliance deal.

According to sources, the talks with Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi party had asked for a major chunk of seats but the Congress and the NCP rejected the demand. With this, the Congress is left with no other option but to fight the upcoming Assembly elections with Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Ambedkar, whose party has a base in Vidarbha and Marathwada region, had demanded seats across all over the state and this was said to be the reason behind the failure of alliance talks.

The Congress was keen to stitch an alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi as the Grand Old Party aware of the kind of impact Prakash Ambedkar, popularly known as Balasaheb Ambedkar, has in Maharashtra. During the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had tried to ally with Ambedkar's party but failed.

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The sources said that after the Lok Sabha election debacle in Maharashtra, several Congress leaders admitted the fact that not having alliance with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi cost them dearly. The Congress barely managed to win just one of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.

Recently, Congress had carried out major organisational changes. The party had appointed Balasaheb Thorat as the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President in place of former chief minister Ashok Chavan. The Congress had also appointed four new working presidents. The coming Assembly election in Maharashtra is not going to be easy for the Congress party, which faces a challenge of gaining back the lost trust of voters.