Pact with Samajwadi Party; A mega revival plan for Congress in UP

Anurag Shukla

Lucknow: In a desperate move to redeem itself from the political anonymity in Uttar Pradesh, the beleaguered Congress is quite calculative in forthcoming pact with the ruling Samajwadi Party in the state assembly elections.

According to the highly placed sources, the Congress is not just asking for numbers but has an inherent strategy within the alliance.

Congress is asking for 105 seats in electoral understanding out of which SP is willing to give 90 odd seats. As per the sources, in a compromise formula, 15 congress candidates may have to contest on the symbol of Samajwadi Party.

Strategy for Grand Revival

Congress has lost his political ground in the State since last 27 years and its star campaigner Rahul Gandhi has also proved ineffective in last few elections in Uttar Pradesh. Now the alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party and youth CM Akhilesh yadav is being looked as a major lifeline for the Congress.

Congress seems to have high stakes as it is looking at a mega revival, hence not willing to loose an inch of opportunity in this electoral pact. The plan goes like

• Congress is asking seats for all of its sitting MLAs.
• The party wants all the 32 seats on which it was runner-up in 2012 assembly elections.
• Congress is asking for at least 1 or 2 seats in almost every district.
• Through this it hopes to galvanize its workers in each and every district of the state who otherwise were subdued and demoralized.
• By asking seat in every district congress will help prevent its own cadre and loyalist voters from deviating to other parties.
• By seat in each district congress it will rejuvenate it de-motivated cadre to life

It’s like no over never for Congress

‘27 saal UP Behaal’ and Khaat Panchayat have also left no mark. In fact, the projection of Brahmin lady Sheila Dixit as CM candidate and presence of poll strategist Prashant Kishore ‘PK’ also failed to lift the morale of Congressmen. As a matter of fact PK and his team ‘IPAC’ had been asked to shift their base to Punjab and Uttarakhand.

Under the present circumstances, Congress is relying heavily on the alliance to revive itself.