Uttar Pradesh urban local body polls: Inside vs outside for Congress

The decision of topping up the UP party organisation with leaders from the BSP is an explicit step to attract the Dalit vote

The faction-ridden Congress is banking on leaders imported from the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to stay afloat.

Out of power for 33 years in UP, the state which accounts for the largest number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats, the party could win only two of the 403 constituencies in the Vidhan Sabha polls, which were held earlier this year.

In the Lok Sabha elections in 1984, the Congress had won all the seats in the state.

Meanwhile, the Congress has decided not to contest the UP Parliamentary and Assembly bypolls in three seats on December 5. While the Lok Sabha by-polls