Lucknow, Nov 28, : .It’s not that their horoscopes don’t match, nor is there any clash between the egos of the leaders, but for the Congress, Uttar Pradesh, alliances have always caused trouble and even precipitated its downfall as a state party. The Congress in Uttar Pradesh has been losing ground every time it has joined an alliance.
The process began in 1989, when Congress was voted out and could only win 94 seats in state assembly.
The Congress, under late Rajiv Gandhi and with Mulayam Singh Yadav serving as chief minister, quickly supported the Janata Dal government.
This was also when the politics and coalitions were first introduced in the country at the national stage.
The Congress lost half of its strength in 1991’s next election and ended up with 46 seats.
1993 saw the party lose even more seats, obtaining just 28 seats.In 1993, it quickly stepped forward to support the SP–BSP coalition government.
P V Narasimha Rao was the first to lead the Congress.
1996 saw the Congress contest the assembly election in alliance to the BSP, which had left the SP following the scandalous state guest house incident in which Mayawati, the supremo of the BSP was allegedly attacked.
The Congress won 33 seats this time, but the BSP lost the elections and formed a coalition government along with the BJP.
Late Sitaram Kesri was president of the Congress.
An aging Congress leader, who didn’t want to be identified, said, “We made the mistake of supporting other political parties, and we continue to do so.” Our voters believed they voted for us, but we support another government.So they voted directly for other parties, and the Congress lost ground.
The party organization began to crumble in 1996 after we won only 125 seats, leaving 300 for the BSP.These 300 workers had nothing to do and moved on to better pastures.
The Congress was left with 25 seats in 2002.However, the Congress helped to prop up the Mulayam Singh government in UP in 2003 after the collapse of the BSP-BJP coalition.
Sonia Gandhi was the party’s chief this time.
The Congress lost 22 seats in 2007, but gained slightly in 2012, when it received 28 seats.
The Congress was able to enthuse its cadres in 2016 with the ’27 saal UP behaal’ campaign, which convinced its workers that it would go it alone this time.
Three months after the campaign that almost revived the party, the Congress leadership opted for an alliance again with the SP.The party’s fortunes apparently plummeranged and it was left with seven seats in the 2017 UP Assembly elections.
2019 was the worst year for Congress in UP.The party lost its bastion Amethi, which was a stronghold of the BJP, and had to be content with Rae Bareli, one Lok Sabha seat.
Ram Bahadur Srivastava is a veteran Congress leader hailing from Gonda district.
He said that while we may stumble and slip, we must learn to walk alone, not as a political stooge to regional parties.The national party loses strength, but the regional parties gain strength.This is what happened to us.Even the BJP lost strength when it allied itself with BSP, and gained strength only when it decided to go it alone.
However, a senior leader blamed the party leadership’s decisions on a “coterie of leaders” who had been’misleading it for their vested interests.
“We have a group leaders who insist on alliance to make financial and other gains.
The problem with the leadership is its inability to interact with workers at the grassroots level.It relies on the opinions of the coterie that ruined the party’s 2016 game plan after it had a head start with the 27 saal UP behaal’ campaign.
As it stands today, Congress workers are hesitant about working for the upcoming elections.
“Why should we work when we don’t know if the party will choose to join an alliance or go it alone?” A party functionary said that even if an alliance is formed, we will still get a small number seats because some of our leaders work for other political parties, even though they are Congress members.
Past Performance
1989: Congress won 94 seats and was supported by Janata Dal government 1991: Congress wins 46 seats; BJP forms government 1993: Congress won 28 seats and was supported by SP-BSP coalition 1996: Congress won 33 seats as an alliance partner with the BSP 2002: Congress had 25 members, BSP-BJP coalition formed 2003: The Coalition was broken up and Congress supported the SP government 2007: Congress won only 22 of the 82 seats.BSP formed majority government 2012: Congress wins 28 seats.SP forms majority government 2017: Congress won 7 seats.This election was contested in alliance by SP
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