MUMBAI, Dec. 29 -- In an unprecedented move, the Congress on Sunday announced an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) for the BMC elections scheduled for January 15. The VBA, which had sought 70 seats, will now contest on 62, while the Congress will stand from 165 seats. A consensus was reached after several rounds of talks were held between the leaders of both parties. The brand-new allies made the announcement in a joint media interaction. "The Congress and VBA are natural allies, as we both are fighting to strengthen constitutional values," declared Maharashtra Congress president Harshavardhan Sapkal. "Recently, we jointly contested a few municipal council polls but we have now become alliance partners." Sapkal added that this was the need of the hour, as "the fight is between followers of the Constitution and those of the Manusmriti". The alliance between the two parties has happened after a gap of over 25 years. Their last tie-up was for the Lok Sabha elections of February 1998 when the VBA was in its previous avatar called the Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM). The alliance for the BMC polls is expected to help in consolidating Dalit, Bahujan and Muslim votes for both the parties. State vice-president of the VBA Dhairyawardhan Pundkar, while confirming the alliance, said they had taken the decision in order to stop the BJP, "which follows a communal and anti-national ideology". Siddharth Mokle, another VBA vice-president, said that the alliance with the Congress was limited to the BMC, and the right to forge an alliance had been granted to the local units. He made the statement soon after Congressman Sapkal said that the party's talks with the VBA for other 28 municipal corporations were on a "positive" track. Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad was conspicuous by her absence at the venue. When asked, Sapkal responded that she was in the process of finalising candidates for the BMC polls. Party insiders said that Gaikwad was attending the screening committee meeting of the city unit, which had been called to finalise candidates for the elections. With the Congress and VBA coming together, the battle for the 227 seats of the BMC is set to become tougher, as it will be the third major alliance after the BJP-Shiv Sena and Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS. Apart from the three alliances, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, Samajwadi Party and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) are also expected to contest the polls making it a multi-corner fight. In the last BMC polls held in 2017, the Congress won 31 seats. The Ambedkar-led BBM failed to open its account despite having an alliance with the Left parties. The undivided Shiv Sena captured 84 seats, the MNS seven seats, the Samajwadi Party six seats and the AIMIM two seats. Meanwhile, the seat-sharing formula of the other two major alliances is yet to be finalised, as Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena is still pushing for more seats. Insiders said the tussle was largely for the seats dominated by the Marathi-speaking population. "As the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance is set to make Marathi pride its poll plank, Shinde believes he is in a better position to counter the Thackeray cousins in those seats, and is relentless during the discussions with the BJP," revealed a party insider. Shinde is demanding seats in South Mumbai and Central Mumbai, which the BJP is unwilling to concede. Broadly, the Shiv Sena is likely to get around 85 seats while the BJP keeps 140. Similarly, there are around five seats on which the Thackeray cousins have failed to arrive at a consensus. Here too, the Shiv Sena (UBT) is likely to contest 150 seats and the MNS will get around 60-the disagreement is reportedly on seats that are part of Worli, Sewri, Mahim and Bhandup. Both the cousins have also agreed to concede 15 seats to the Sharad Pawar- led NCP (SP). The last day for filing nominations is December 30....