The Trinamul Congress and the NCP who are testing their appeal outside West Bengal and Maharashtra are unlikely to open their account in the February-March Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
This is the feedback of the Congress party. If NCP supremo Sharad Pawar is taking keen interest in the local body elections in Maharashtra, the Trinamul Congress is testing waters in Uttar Pradesh after its historic victory in West Bengal Assembly.
The Trinamul Congress has decided to contest 49 sets in Uttar Pradesh so far.
Though the Trinamul Congress and the NCP are relying on the dissidents in the Congress, especially those who have failed to get the party nominations, they neither have castes or a face on their side to open their account in the fight for space. A former Union minister said, “In UP, castes, money and muscle power fight elections and not political parties.”
The Trinamul Congress is also contesting Assembly elections against the ally Congress in Manipur and Goa and has fielded candidates in Punjab and Uttarakhand ruled by the SAD and the BJP.
Although a section of the Congress is expecting a hung Assembly in Uttar Pradesh, it is optimistic that the Congress-RLD combine will cross 65 seats.
The SP can emerge as a single largest party but may not form a government on its own.
In such a scenario, the Congress can share power with either the Samajwadi Party or the BSP, a leader who does not want to be quoted, viewed.
The Congress is confident of forming a government in Punjab under the leadership of Capt. Amrinder Singh mainly because the BJP sharing power with the SAD is losing its hold in the urban areas. In Uttarkhand, it can get mileage of the anti-incumbency factor against the ruling BJP but the Congress is lagging behind a “leader” to be seen as a chief ministerial candidate against the chief minister B.C. Khanduri.
Although the current mood in the Congress is not to ally with the NCP in Goa, which will see multi-cornered contests, insiders fear that the controversial mining issue and image of the incumbent chief minister Digambar Kamat could go against the party.
But in Manipur, the Mamata Banerjee-led party can make a dent in the Congress support base.