Mumbai, Jan 25 (IANS): Ending the long suspense, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of Congress-Shiv Sena (UBT)-Nationalist Congress Party (SP) sent a formal invitation to Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) to join the Lok Sabha seat-sharing talks here on Thursday.

Bowing before the demands of the VBA President Prakash Ambedkar, the MVA has issued the invite on a letterhead, duly signed by Congress state President Nana Patole, NCP (SP) state President Jayant Patil and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut.

Ambedkar has been invited for the MVA talks to discuss and finalise the seat-sharing for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, scheduled at 3 p.m. at a private hotel in Nariman Point.

The development came a day after the VBA Spokesperson Siddharth Mokle had spurned the oral invitation by Raut to attend the negotiations and insisted on a formal written communication signed by the top leaders of all the three parties.

Mokale made it clear that the VBA is keen to be a part of the MVA as well as the national Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc, but so far it has been kept out of both.

Ambedkar had also recently written to the Congress on the issue, warning that it would contest all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, rattling the state Opposition parties.

He had reiterated the VBA’s stance that in order to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “it was imperative for all the Opposition parties to unite” for the 2024 Parliament polls, but the Congress seems to be ‘killing time with new excuses each time".