With Uttar Pradesh politics seen heading towards an SP-BSP bipolarity, the stunning comeback of the grand old party has set the stage for a triangular play, at least for now, given that the BJP stands at distant fourth position.

While Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party would take heart from the fact that it emerged as the single largest party in Uttar Pradesh pinning the ruling BSP down despite loss of a dozen seats from its previous tally, the Congress’s emergence as the second largest party is likely to take the sheen off the SP’s claim as the prime challenger to the incumbent Government.

Of the 21 seats won by the Congress in the state, the BSP came second on as many as 16. The Congress stood second to the BSP on three seats. This implies that the Congress and BSP were in direct fight on 19 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats.

In the last general elections, the Congress had won nine seats and stood second on seven, totalling 16 seats where it was in real contest. This time, its resurgence is clear from the fact that it has won 21 seats and overall stood second on seven, making it a total of 28 seats where it was in real contest.

Congress’s present performance is also a marked improvement over its 2007 performance in the Assembly elections where it stood fourth in 16 of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies, which is arrived after extrapolation of its Assembly election votes for the parliamentary constituency keeping the delimitation in mind.

... contd.