Lok Sabha polls 2019: Dalits look beyond Congress, BJP in Solapur

Some political observers are sticking their neck out to assert that neither the Congress nor NCP are principal opponents to the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena combine

On the 128th birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar, his grandson, Prakash Ambedkar, attended the commemoration ceremony in Solapur, one of the districts in Maharashtra with a strong Dalit and Muslim base, who together account for 35 per cent of the city’s population. 

He is fighting the Solapur Lok Sabha seat against Sushilkumar Shinde of the Congress, and Jaisiddheshwar Swami of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The seat has seen alternating victories of the two leading national parties in the last two decades. 

But this time, it is different, says Akhil Shakya, a lawyer and Solapur district president of Bhim Army, a