Congress, JD-U, SP begin to explore possible alliance

The developing political situation in Uttar Pradesh has driven the Congress to do a rethink on alliances ahead of the Assembly elections there early next year. Till now, the Congress was set on going solo, but it is reconsidering the matter now, though a final call is yet to be taken.

The first call for such an alliance in Uttar Pradesh was given by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who urged all secular forces to unite to ensure the BJP’s defeat, as had happened in Bihar. There have been a slew of meetings in the past three days, with JD(U) leader Shared Yadav meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi. SP’s Shivpal Yadav spoke to Sharad Yadav, inviting him to the SP’s annual dinner in early November. On Thursday, the Congress’ UP in-charge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, called on Sharad Yadav.

Sources say Nitish Kumar wants the Congress to be a part of the grand alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal. The Congress is listening, but is not ready to commit just yet. The Congress feels since the elections are still some months away, it will be better to see how things evolve before taking a final call.

The deal, if it happens, will be that the Congress will be given a “respectable number” of seats, while Akhilesh Yadav will be the chief ministerial candidate. The Congress started thinking on these lines as it feels that while its voteshare may increase, this may not translate into seats.

If Priyanka Gandhi Vadra agrees to campaign in UP in a major way, the alliance hopes to project a combination of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi along with Akhilesh and Dimple Yadav before voters, something that may be a big crowd-puller. Even Nitish Kumar’s image in Poorvanchal is likely to be a crowd-puller.

The Congress was first off the block in a high-octane campaign over the past three months. It has taken on all existing players, that include the Bahujan Samaj Party, SP and BJP. It is evident that at a personal level there is some amount of attraction between the Congress vice-president and the UP chief minister. So the question is whether the SP will remain intact or not. If it doesn’t stay together, the Congress is wondering which faction could be part of such a grand alliance.

Rahul Gandhi has had meetings with Congress MLAs from UP, where the possibility of a pre-poll alliance was discussed, but the final call can only be taken by the party high command.