The Congress has embarked upon a perilous path on its way to a sort of possible way to power in Bhopal. Election surveys have not as yet indicated that the Congress will be able to ride anti-incumbency sentiments accumulated over 15 years to seize the reins of Government in Madhya Pradesh, even though the possibility is not being counted as being remote either.
To be able to do so, the Congress needed to get some simple things right. It failed. Now, unfortunately, it has plumped for some of the more complex things and it's getting them wrong. Let's begin with the main thing it failed to do right — alliances. The party had intended to finalise pre-election alliances principally with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), but also with the Samajwadi Party and the Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP). It failed on all fronts.
An alliance with the BSP alone would have exponentially increased the Congress' chances of unseating three-time BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
