VBA offers 40 seats to Congress for Maha poll alliance

Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has offered 40 out of total 288 seats to the crisis-hit Congress if it wanted to enter into an alliance for the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra.

Announcing that the VBA, which also comprises AIMIM, is ready to contest all 288 constituencies, Ambedkar said the Congress has become rudderless.

"Considering the strength of the Congress party in the state, we have offered them 40 seats. Now they have to decide what to do about our proposal. There is no one (in the Congress) to take a decision at the Centre as well as the state level (in the Congress)," he said, adding that the condition of that party has become like a body without the head.

The Congress plunged into a crisis following two consecutive drubbings it suffered in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and resignation by party president Rahul Gandhi.

In Maharashtra, which was once a stronghold of the Congress, the party could win just one out of total 48 LS ..