Open to alliance in UP but also focused on rebuilding its strength on ground: Congress

Lucknow: Congress is in the middle of a month-long organisation-building campaign across all 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to strengthen its grassroots presence and the party is hopeful of striking a “respectful and suitable” alliance to take on the BJP in the 2027 Assembly polls.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance delivered a strong performance—the Congress winning six of the 17 seats it contested and the SP bagging 37 seats—reducing the BJP’s tally from 62 to 33 in UP, the most populous state in the country.

Perhaps that is why Congress general secretary and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Avinash Pande told news agency that while the party is focused on rebuilding its grassroots presence across the state, it would, in all likelihood, look to enter into a “respectable and suitable alliance” under the INDIA Bloc to take on the BJP in the next round of elections.”

For the moment however, Pande said, the party in the middle of “Sangathan Srijan” (organisation building) campaign across all 75 districts in UP is also gearing up for the panchayat polls, which would be held in 2026, a year ahead of the 2027 polls.

Pande who is on a seven-day tour of the state, meeting district-level leaders and workers to assess progress and energise the cadre said a 100-day programme has been launched to drive the effort, with trained professionals overseeing implementation as the Congress is eyeing the Panchayat polls to increase its rural penetration in UP.

In the 2022 state polls, the two parties had contested separately. While SP improved its count from 47 to 111 seats, Congress was reduced to just two.

“Talking about the alliance, the INDIA Bloc is very much in existence but as you know, an alliance of the regional parties and us (Congress) as a national party came together to give a strong Opposition to the BJP. So, we are strengthening our organisation and because of that we will come together as a strong alliance,” Pande told the news agency.