His firebrand reputation precedes Prakash Ambedkar, a volatile critic of the parties that he thinks have affected not only his original ‘parent party’—the Republican Party of India (RPI), but also the outfits he had been floating ever since the RPI split into several factions many decades ago. He had alliances with the RPI factions and the unified Congress in the past, and later experimented by expanding his party by joining hands with non-Dalits and Muslims. Recently, he realised that the Shiv Sena (UBT) has reshaped its Hindutva, and aligned with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party for the forthcoming elections. But things haven’t stopped there from Ambedkar’s side. He has been launching a frontal attack on the Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, his political bête noire, accusing the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) architect of siding with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The accusation hasn’t gone down well with the NCP and Sena (UBT) leaders such as Sanjay Raut, who himself played a good role in stitching the MVA together in 2019. The Congress, too, isn’t happy about Ambedkar’s entry in their scheme of things. Three years since the formation of MVA, the political atmosphere has changed completely. Thackeray has lost 40 MLAs, his party is divided and the factions are fighting to seize control of the parent organisation. Thackeray’s pact with Ambedkar is an instrument to consolidate his position in the BMC and other elections, the Assembly and Lok Sabha included.