Congress rebuffs Prakash Ambedkar's offer to have electoral understanding

Congress has rebuffed Prakash Ambedkar's offer to have an electoral understanding with it. The party on Tuesday announced Abhay Kashinath Patil for Akola, the Lok Sabha constituency where Ambedkar is the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate.

After recently announcing that he had broken his alliance talks with the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Sena faction, Ambedkar had in a letter to the Congress leadership said that he was ready to have an electoral understanding exclusively with Congress and support 7 of its candidates.

The Congress announcement of candidature for Akola has ended the possibility of VBA joining the Opposition alliance in Maharashtra. However, Sharad Pawar has said that he would try to persuade Congress to withdraw its candidate in Akola to reach an understanding with Ambedkar. "There is still time. I will be speaking to the Congress," Pawar said.