Good words notwithstanding, SP and Congress aren't joining hands in UP
Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will not join hands to contest UP polls next year. Photo: India Today
The UP chief minister's throwaway remarks describing Rahul Gandhi as a "good person" has set off a fresh round of speculation about a likely coming together of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh.
Akhilesh Yadav's remarks came in a response to a pointed question on what he thought of the Congress vice president and the CM sought to reply in the same vein as Rahul Gandhi had when describing him as a "achha ladka" (good boy).
Both leaders were being politically correct and polite, perhaps leaving the door open for a post poll alliance as a desperate last-ditch attempt to keep the BJP from forming the government in the state.
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| There is prevailing concern over Amit Shah's ability to get the BJP across the finish line in UP next year. Photo: India Today |
The possibility of a pre-poll alliance is almost negligible. And there are several reasons for this.
The Congress is desperately trying to claw its way back into the reckoning and win back some of its support groups, like the minorities that have drifted to the SP, and allying with the very party that has weaned away its support groups will be counter-productive.
If the Congress had a chance, it would readily ally with the Bahujan Samaj Party, but so far Mayawati has steadfastly rejected all such overtures.
Rahul Gandhi said as much in an interaction with journalists sometime back. Efforts have been made at the highest quarters but the BSP chief believes it's not in her party's interest to have any pre-poll alliance.
Her logic is that the BSP gains little through these poll alliances, because the other parties fail to transfer their votes while the BSP is the only party that can successfully transfer its vote to whoever it allies with.
An alliance with the BSP will help the Congress at the national level as well and help it consolidate its traditional Dalit-Muslim vote bank.
The Congress party's political managers are of the view that an alliance with the SP, if and when it comes about, will be limited to UP, and would not in any away value add to the Congress.
At the national level, the Congress is viewed as the main political force opposing the BJP and therefore it feels there is nothing that the SP will bring to the table. Those opposed to the BJP will vote for it at the national level, whether or not the SP is by its side.
The Congress leadership also views the SP with a fair degree of suspicion and there is a history to it.
In 1991, Mulayam Singh Yadav had agreed to an alliance with the Congress party after detailed and protracted negotiations with Rajiv Gandhi. Mulayam Singh drove a hard bargain all night and finally inked the deal with the former prime minister in the early hours of the morning, but flew in a state aircraft to Lucknow and promptly called off the alliance on landing in the state capital.
Some of the SP chief's statements of late, where he has spoken of the possibility of tying up with the BJP, subject to certain conditions, has made the Congress leadership suspicious of his intentions.