being constructed all over, demo-lishing stadiums and libraries, the image of a mercurial one-centre party and the prospect of the “third front” pushed this section of the vote towards the Congress.

The Muslim suspicion of Mayawati too got heightened with talk of the Third Front or “equidistance” from the Congress and the BJP. With the prime ministerial candidature of L.K. Advani, political “equidistance” in this context was seen as a codeword for helping the BJP.

The Congress decision to go it alone too was seen initially as bravado by a young leadership; but the placing of interesting and “good” candidates as a way of attracting a critical mass of vote, and using the buzz around them as a way of sourcing an “organisation” of sorts paid off. In each village of UP there are many undusted Gandhi topis which no one had bothered to pull out for several years; but candidates and a clever campaign mixing nostalgia for Congress-rule with the promise of a future, a party whose leadership positioned itself as one that did not hanker for power but had the guts to renounce and “serve”, and Rahul Gandhi as an organisation energiser, acted as a force-multiplier and the trinity managed to pull off an umbrella effect, getting back about two out of three sections of its old voter base.

The Congress might rue its lack of network or organisation in the way the BSP and SP can boast of now, but precisely that lack of organisation — the absence of cronies — meant that the party candidates and the top trinity could work their message down to the voter directly, without any local

... contd.