•COOMI KAPOOR: Why wasn’t the man responsible for the UP success included in the UPA Cabinet?

That is an old story. In 2003, when I could not form the government in MP, I had said that there should be some kind of accountability and that I would not hold any government position for the next 10 years. That self-imposed exile will end in 2013. Till then, I am in the party.

•UNNI RAJEN SHANKER: Now that your experiment has been successful in UP and partially in Bihar, are you going to extend it to other states?

If the Congress has to go beyond 272, it cannot achieve that without fighting most of the seats and unless and until we break ground in UP and Bihar, it won’t happen. The Congress’s Panchmarhi resolution said Congress should go it alone but later it was amended. My own feeling is, when a post-poll alliance is possible, why go for pre-poll alliances? Transfer of votes is not easy—for instance, the upper caste vote cannot be transferred to Lalu Prasad. Similarly, it is difficult to transfer Congress vote to BSP but BSP votes can transfer to Congress.

•J.P. YADAV: Do you think the results marked the beginning of the end of the regional parties?

I would not call it the end of regional parties but yes, a decline of regional parties. Regional parties are basically caste-based parties. They have peaked, they can only decline now. People are once again looking at national alternatives rather than regional parties. But we cannot write them off because in state elections, they will have a considerable say.   

... contd.