The revival of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh is seen in a curious way in Manmohan Singh’s fully expanded council of ministers.

After all, when was the last time one saw the odd murmurs of discontent that enough Congress ministers from the state had not been inducted in the council?

Some way UP had always been the barometer for what the country was up to. In the state assembly, after five formidable Congress CMs since 1952, the party was overthrown and replaced by the Bharatiya Lok Dal’s Charan Singh in 1967, at a time when the national mood was for non-Congress state governments. The Janata Party wave in 1977 found a prototype here, and likewise in 1984 and in 1989, too, UP was perfectly in sync with change coming elsewhere in India. But after 1996, when the BJP registered spectacular gains here, UP took a slightly different route, the electorate began opting for regional players and the state emerged as an analogue of Tamil Nadu in the south, where the two Dravidian parties were the prime and bitter contenders for power. The trend was exacerbated in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and then in the 2007 assembly results, when the national parties were pushed to number three and four in the state. UP seemed captive to solely compulsions of caste, kin, a few frayed hopes and events of the late ’80s and early ’90s.

However, this time the GOP has emerged as the second largest party in the state.

... contd.