What this result should also impact, nationally, is the recent bonhomie between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. While the BSP, having contested virtually all seats, has not exactly damaged the Congress (the margin is wide in most assembly constituencies), what should worry the Congress is how aligning with the SP in Uttar Pradesh gives Mayawati a great reason to strike any kind of alignment she wants to with the BJP/NDA, and that affects the Congress nationally. The Congress may reconsider aggressively taking on the BSP, and return to its original “ambivalent” position and keep all options open.

A strong sentiment amongst Congress leaders, especially the younger ones, is to cut clean of the UPA’s allies (“be firm”) and the Left’s politics (“go it alone”), to call elections after pulling off the nuclear deal and to “take on” some alliance partners (which certain confrontational moments with the NCP would testify to). This view may be hushed for a while, with the Centre wanting to use the last lap to do more things on a redrawn Common Minimum Programme, and appear more cohesive.

However, December 1, 2003 saw three large north Indian states being swept by the ruling BJP, but in just five months they were out of power in Delhi. So, while local elections matter, they sometimes matter not just for what the numbers are. What matters is what political parties do with them and after them. Then, the BJP called early elections in 2004 and said India was “shining”. The Congress president walked down Janpath to build alliances (the first with the only significant Dalit leader in the UPA today, Ram Vilas Paswan). The distance between Gandhi and Paswan’s homes was a short one, but it remains to be seen whether anyone wants to walk the mile this time or the fact of being in power results in the lethargy that parties in power often slip into.

... contd.