Mumbai, Apr 15 (IANS): The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar touched a raw nerve by accusing the ruling and opposition alliances for excluding Muslim candidates from their Lok Sabha nominees, here on Sunday.

He said that both the ruling MahaYuti of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party, and the Maha Vikas Aghadi of Congress-Nationalist Congress (SP)-Shiv Sena (UBT) have failed to nominate a single Muslim candidate so far.

“If the MVA has to exclude Muslims - like the BJP - then what is the difference between the two…? On Bhim Jayanti Day, I am raising this point on inclusion and exclusion,” said Ambedkar, wondering why the media has also kept mum on the issue.

In the LS 2024 elections, so far neither the MVA nor MahaYuti has fielded any Muslim or other minority candidates, though Ambedkar’s VBA has named some candidates in the state.

Earlier, during the 2019 and 2014 LS polls, the Congress had fielded a sole Muslim candidate in Akola, Hidayatulla Barkatulla Patel, who lost to the BJP’s Sanjay S. Dhotre.

Interestingly, the third contender was Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh President Prakash Ambedkar, who also lost, but later faced criticism as being a ‘vote-splitter’ in Akola and around a dozen other constituencies, though he has vehemently denied the allegations.

For the 2024 elections, the MVA allies have finalised candidates in 45 out of 48 LS seats and there is a growing clamour among Congress, NCP (SP) activists and other smaller parties to field at least one Muslim candidate, failing which there could be a decline in the minority community’s turnout in their strongholds.

Among the names being speculated are former state minister and Congress Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan for the Mumbai North-Central seat which has a substantial minority population.

Though senior party leaders declined to comment officially on the ticklish issue, they pointed out that the Congress has been nominating and electing many Muslim and other minority leaders to both houses of parliament regularly since Independence.

Maharashtra has an average Muslim population of 18 per cent, but in certain LS constituencies, the sprinkling is higher in some regions which can make or break the prospects of a mainstream political party’s candidate.

The sole relief in 2019 came from an ‘outsider’ party in Aurangabad (now, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) when its nominee, Syed Imtiaz Jaleel trounced the Shiv Sena (UBT) four-term LS veteran Chandrakant Khaire.

Ambedkar further attacked both the BJP and Congress for “fabricating lies and running fake propaganda” against him through news manipulation deliberately intended to malign him.

“Both these anti-Dalit, anti-tribals, anti-OBC and anti-Muslim parties have realised the power of the VBA, hence the desperate attempts to malign me and our party. So much fear!... It shows much they are afraid of the VBA. Their fear explains that they want to keep the voice of the deprived and marginalized (VBA) away from power,” declared Ambedkar.