NAGPUR, May 27: The Republican Party of India (RPI) seemed to be heading for a split today with Prakash Ambedkar, MP and a member of the party's presidium, reiterating his call to Dalits to boycott the coming by-elections in Maharashtra if the Congress failed to clarify its stand on alliance with the party by June 3.Ambedkar, son of the RPI founder and Dalit leader late Dr B R Ambedkar, had announced the boycott on Sunday, but other leaders said it was his individual view and not a party decision.For the first time RPI had won four seats, including three in Vidarbha, in the last Lok Sabha election in alliance with the Congress, which had also gained substantially.
While RPI and the State Congress leaders have been expressing the view that the alliance would continue for future polls, Ambedkar, a contender for the party chief's post and a rebel, says it was limited to the last Lok Sabha poll.
He said the announcement of Congress candidates for all the 10 by-election seats, had proved his point.
"Ifthe Congress party really wants an alliance with the RPI, it should announce before June 3 (the day of the by-poll), the number of seats it would leave for RPI in the next State Assembly polls, and should also begin talks on alliance," Ambedkar said in a statement here late last night.
"If the Congress fails to make its stand clear by June 3, our boycott of the by-elections stands," he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Ambedkar had said at a meet the press programme that the decision to call on Dalits to abstain from voting was taken at a meeting of "Ambedkarite intellectuals and leaders" at Pune on May 14 and that the decision of the group would be more effective than an official directive of the RPI.
Ambedkar, whose dispute with other RPI leaders over the party organisational elections is now before the Election Commission, was piqued by the decision of the Congress Working Committee, endorsed by All India Congress Committee, to go it alone in the by-polls. This was followed by announcement of the candidatesfor the by-elections without consulting any of the parties with which the Congress had alliance in Maharashtra and none of the Congress leaders in the State had the courage to speak out, Ambedkar said.
The contention of the State Congress leaders that the party would make amends in the next Assembly election was a "ridiculous proposition to which the Republican Party of India would not fall prey," he added.
Ambedkar was critical of other RPI leaders who, he said were "suffering from mental slavery" and were ready to be "uninvited guests of the Congress" which, he said, had unilaterally closed its doors to Republican Party of India.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
