|
No UPA alliance in polls, says
Congress
WSN Network
NEW DELHI: Big
news from the Indian political front this week was the Congress
party’s official announcement that it will have no alliance at the
national level with any party. That means there will be no UPA
fighting the elections and that all alliances will be on a
state-by-state basis. But within hours of this announcement, the
real tests began.
And it all began
from
Bihar.
This is a state
where the Congress is not much of a player. last time in 2004, Lalu
Prasad’s RJD offered it a paltry 4 seats out of 40. Considering that
Bihar was central to the UPA’s fortunes that year, with the alliance
winning 29 of those 40 seats, it was important that Ram Vilas Paswan
has already made clear that he wants to be seen and projected as the
leader in Bihar, not Lalu.
Last time the
Congress had won 3 of its 4 seats, the RJD 22 of 26. Ram Vilas
Paswan’s LJP, however, won only 4 out of its allotted 8, well below
its partners’ strike rates.
In Andhra
Pradesh, it is now clear that the Telangana Rashtra Samiti will ally
with the Telugu Desam and the Left. Thus, the Congress’s chances in
a state which provided the UPA with 35 seats in 2004 will be not
very strong.
In
Bihar,
Paswan has said his party will contest all of
Bihar’s seats,
something that could be disastrous for Congress.
4
February 2009 |
Read Also