Riding high on the wave of farmers' agitation in Uttar Pradesh, Congress is expected to come out with a strategy for the Assembly polls in 2012 to pose a challenge to chief minister Mayawati at a convention in Varanasi beginning on Wednesday.
The convention is being held at a time when party leader Rahul Gandhi has taken the confrontation with the ruling BSP to a new level by complaining to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the "repression" of farmers by authorities in Greater Noida during the farmers' stir.
In fact, Gandhi, who led the campaign in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 in the state when the party secured 22 of the 80 seats, will be inaugurating the two-day conference.
Party chief Sonia Gandhi will be delivering the valedictory address at the convention in which she is expected to come out with the blueprint for Mission Uttar Pradesh 2012, as the poll battle is being dubbed by the party.
Congress is in political wilderness in Uttar Pradesh for the last 22 years in the wake of the Mandal and the Mandir surge and its revival has started only in the last Lok Sabha elections.
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in 2007 are seen as a defining moment in Indian politics given the fact that it saw Mayawati securing a majority in the politically-crucial state on her own by ousting the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party coalition from power.
Congress has ruled out joining hands with any major party like the SP or BSP, but has not ruled out having poll tie-ups with smaller parties in the state.
BJP, which ruled UP a decade back, has now turned a laggard and is seeking to get its house in order. A meeting of the National Executive of the BJP is being held at Lucknow early in June to devise strategy for revival.
Congress sources say that the party is moving towards having a strategic tie-up with Ajit Singh-led RLD if the latter refuses to merge his party with Congress.
The two-day convention will see top party leaders brainstorming with state party workers about the strategy to be adopted for the Assembly elections. Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh will also address a rally.
The party is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to revive itself in the home state of the Gandhi-Nehru family.
Stakes are high for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh as it had come a cropper in neighbouring Bihar in the Assembly polls in 2010 despite Rahul virtually leading the campaign there.
Leaders like Digvijay Singh are insisting that UP isnot Bihar as the party organisation was geared up in Lucknow unlike in Patna.
After a spectacular show in last Lok Sabha elections, the party is being taken seriously by its detractors. A meeting of newly constituted state executive will also be held before the convention, which will be chaired by UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi.
The party hopes to come out with the first list of candidates for the Assembly polls within a month and it will be for the first time that Congress will announce names of its candidates for any Assembly election one year before the election schedule.
Congress leaders say that the names of candidates will be announced earlier so that they get time to prepare for election and if there is any dissent, it could also peter out by the time elections come.
The confrontation between the Congress and BSP is set to intensify in coming days as the Congress has also announced plans to take the battle to the home turf of chief minister Mayawati.
As per the plans, a party rally is being held at village Badalpur, native place of the BSP supremo, in the first week of next month. The village falls in Gautam Budh Nagar district, where land agitations have kept Mayawati government on its toes.
Congress plans to use the rally to attack Maywati on the issue of corruption and highlight 'atrocities against even Dalits' in a state ruled by a Dalit chief minister. It is alleging that Mayawati had bought land in her native place which was acquired by the state government for public purpose.
The chief minister, on her part, has embarked on poll preparations on a war footing and has even announced most of the candidates for the exercise to the 403-member Assembly.
Similar has been the case with Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party which has also announced several candidates.