Kolhapur: The Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi, floated by Prakash Ambedkar, is ready to wait for two more days for final negotiations with the Congress. The party is expecting the Congress to create a constitutional framework, within which the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) can be forced to operate.Prakash Ambedkar, who is currently on the election campaign in the Vidarbha region, told TOI that he was in touch with Congress leaders over the seat-sharing and hopes to sort the issue out once he returns to Mumbai.Sources in the Congress said that they have asked Ambedkar to prepare a draft, under which the RSS can be put under some restrictions constitutionally. The Congress is yet to receive any such draft, they said.However, a major obstacle in the progress in talks between the two parties is the number of seats that are being demanded by the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi. Ambedkar’s party has announced almost two dozen candidates in Maharashtra and want to contest 23 seats, which would leave the Congress and NCP 25 with seats.Neither the Congress nor the NCP is in a mood to accept Ambedkar’s demand. Sources in the Congress and NCP said that both the parties are unhappy as Ambedkar has also asked for three important seats, which include — Madha, Baramati and Nanded. They point out that Pawar is personally interested in Madha and Baramati and is unlikely to compromise on these two seats. The Maharashtra Congress President Ashok Chavan is a sitting Lok Sabha member from Nanded and the Congress was thus in no mood to give this seat up, under any circumstance.Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Savant said that the negotiations were in progress and that the issue of seat sharing would be sorted out within two days.The NCP, however, has doubts about Ambedkar’s designs. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, “This is not the time for any experiment. The need of the hour is to unite against the BJP. The Congress is ready to give up four seats but Ambedkar’s demand for 23 seats is rather unreasonable”.Sources in the NCP said that the party was not in a mood to give up any seat for the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi. They point out that the party had already given up one seat for Raju Shetti, in order to accommodate smaller parties. Both the parties are also reluctant because Ambedkar has already joined hands with Asaddudin Owaisi’s All India Majlis — E- Itehadul Muslimeen. They fear that any indirect alliance with Owaisi could be counter-productive in the voting.

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