Finally, the deal is done. Those who were predicting doom for the I.N.D.I.A alliance in Uttar Pradesh must be deeply disappointed. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP), after much suspense, like a good one-day cricket match, have reached a decision on seat distribution. The Congress will contest 17 seats and the rest will be fought by the SP, along with smaller parties. The Congress has decided to give one more seat to the SP in Madhya Pradesh, which reflects that the grand old party has learnt its lesson after the historic debacle in the recently held assembly elections in the state. Just to remind readers, during those elections, the Congress, then led by Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh, had attacked SP chief Akhilesh Yadav by calling him names, who, in turn, angered and humiliated, went on to equate the Congress with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, now that the deal is sealed, I guess we can say all is well that ends well.

Uttar Pradesh is a critical state for any party or political formation that aims to rule at the centre. In 2014, when the BJP selected Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, he decided to contest from Varanasi, in addition to Vadodara in Gujarat. In fact, after winning both seats, he chose Varanasi and gave up Vadodara. Modi was aware that without winning a substantial number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, it would be impossible to fulfil his lifelong aim of becoming the PM. It's no coincidence that the BJP then appointed Amit Shah to oversee the elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The party ended up winning 71 seats out of 80, while its ally Apna Dal got two. What surprised a few BJP supporters was the fact that just two years before that, in the 2012 assembly polls, the party had managed to get only a 15% vote........

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