‘VBA to contest all 2024 polls with Uddhav-led Sena faction’

heb Thackeray, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) head Prakash Ambedkar on Monday said it will contest all elections in 2024 with the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction.

nounced a tie-up on January 23.

First India Bureau Akola: Reiterating his outfit’s commitment to alliance with the Shiv Sena – Uddhav Balasa-

The Maharashtra Assembly elections are due in 2024. Polls to various civic bodies, including the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), are also overdue.

The Shiv Sena –UBT and VBA had an-

Ambedkar had then said the alliance was between the Shiv Sena -UBT and the VBA for the moment, but he hoped other constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party) would also join.

To a query from reporters here on Monday, Ambedkar said, “The friendship between the Shiv Sena -UBT and VBA will re- main in the 2024 Assembly elections, and whatever polls will be held in between, the election alliance with remain.”

Ambedkar also said no candidate has been fielded by the VBA-Uddhav Thackeray Sena faction for the upcoming by-election to Chinchwad Assembly seat in Pune.

Hence, the VBA is supporting independent candidate Rahul Kalate, he added.

In a big blow to Uddhav Thackeray, the Election Commission on Friday allotted the name Shiv Sena and its bow and arrow poll symbol to the group led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The EC allowed the Thackeray faction to retain the name Shiv Sena - Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and the flaming torch poll symbol, given to it in an interim order in October last year, till the conclusion of ongoing Assembly bypolls in the state.