In the end, the Congress party got itself a better seat-sharing deal from the Samajwadi Party that it could have realistically hoped for; never mind that its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, had sounded a war cry with a Deoria-to-Delhi trek through Uttar Pradesh on the claim of the party forming the government on its own. On Sunday, after some tense moments with each party affecting that it was ready to walk away if it did not get its maximalist demands, an alliance for the February-March U.P. Assembly elections was announced. The SP will fight 298 seats, the Congress 105. With this, both parties have created for themselves an opportunity that may be more than the sum of their individual chances, and for both it is perfectly timed. The SP is battling not just anti-incumbency but also the shock of the 2014 Lok Sabha verdict , when it won just five seats . It has gone through a nerve-wracking rite of passage as Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav took on his father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s perceived coterie, for control of the party organisation, and then, at the Election Commission’s door, for the party symbol of the cycle. In fact, this was a necessary transition in the SP for any tie-up with the Congress to strike true. The Congress’s relations with Mr. Mulayam Singh have always lacked good faith to encourage vote transfer, and the history of dashed expectations would have made the alliance difficult to pull off on his watch.
For Mr. Akhilesh Yadav, the alliance completes his effort to rebrand himself, from being no longer the young Chief Minister of the past years who was mocked for being witless in allowing his “uncles” (family members and party seniors) to run the administration. As the unity among the uncles cracked in the past few months, the Chief Minister came into his own. It helped cast him in the public eye as a leader capable of standing on his own terms, and he strategically showcased the fight as being less about spoils and more about ideals. Now, by turning the election into a three-cornered contest, he can use the SP-Congress alliance to attract voters, especially the minorities, looking to cast their ballot tactically to defeat the BJP candidate. For, even at its historic nadir in the State in 2014, the Congress got almost 8% of the vote. In turn, for the grand old party, to be even seen to be on a winning ballot in U.P. would be a transformational leap. The two parties are not operating in a vacuum, and both the BJP and the BSP will put up formidable campaigns. But together they have made the contest more keen than their individual challenges could have done.
