Congress seems to be back on coalition road after Bihar experience

After the poll disaster in Bihar, Congress appears to be back on coalition course.

Ahead of the plenary session beginning tomorrow, the talk of going it alone has given way to one of political reality.

The debate at the Subjects Committee meeting here, headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by her side, focussed on the issue of political reality instead of political compulsion.

This meant that the party line will be in tune with the political reality in each state. After the Lok Sabha elections last year in which the Congress crossed the 200-mark, the talk of going it alone had begun in the party, including in the key state of Uttar Pradesh where assembly polls are due in 2012.

The political resolution is unlikely to say much on the issue, as one party leader put it that the Congress has been leading a coalition at the Centre for the last six years.

With assembly polls in five states including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal to be held early next year, it would be a virtual tightrope walk for the Congress at the Plenary Session on the issue of alliances.

Party president Sonia Gandhi is expected to spell out the party's strategy for next year's assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry. The Congress is dependent on allies like the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and DMK in Tamil Nadu.

The DMK has been grappling with the 2G spectrum controversy with CBI raids on DMK leaders including former telecom minister A Raja.

While there was some turbulence in Trinamool Congress-Congress ties in West Bengal ahead of the polls, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, whose party is another UPA ally, has said that some decisions of the government have left investors and India Inc disturbed.

Party leaders say the Congress would have to trudge the middle path on key issues like alliances, lest it sends wrong signals to its allies in the coalition.

Late PV Narasimha Rao was the last Congress prime minister in the single-party rule era as he provided stability for a full term from 1991 to 1996, despite initially Congress being in a minority.

Congress has gained majority at the Centre way back in 1984, when the elections were held after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.