Cong-NCP should explain `VBA is BJP's B-team' jibe: Ambedkar

Vachit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) leader Prakash Ambedkar said Friday that it won't discuss possibility of alliance with the Congress and NCP until the two parties came clear on their accusation that VBA was the BJP's "B- team". He also said that several of the candidates who had contested the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly polls were in touch with him ahead of the coming state elections.

"They (Congress-NCP) had labelled us the 'B team' of the BJP. We had to contest the (Lok Sabha) polls (on our own) because you (Congress and NCP) were not ready to adjust," Ambedkar said at a press conference here. "They should then first explain what our actual status is. There cannot be any discussion (on alliance for assembly polls) till you explain that," he said.

Ambedkar also said that his party, Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM), would contest the Assembly polls in alliance with the AIMIM, as in the Lok Sabha elections. The VBA, formed by Ambedkar and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, contested all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra after alliance talks with the Congress and NCP fell through.

In at least seven or eight constituencies the VBA is thought to have eaten into Congress-NCP's votes, helping NDA candidates to win.