The Congress has made up its mind to contest the next Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh alone amid rising opposition to coalition politics in many other states as well.

At a meeting with the general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, most senior leaders advocated the go-alone line, arguing that alliances had been a major obstacle in the revival of the Congress in the state.

The experiment will begin with by-elections to 12 Assembly seats later this year.

Sources said the Congress would contest all the 12 seats and instructions had already been issued to start preparations without thinking of any alliance.

There will be four-cornered contests in every constituency as the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have also snapped their ties.

Priyanka had on Friday called 15 senior leaders to discuss the strategy to strengthen the organisation in Uttar Pradesh. They all gave their suggestions and the next meeting will take place soon.

Priyanka asked all the leaders to step out among the people and give voice to their concerns. She is expected to start a tour of the state later this year.

Getting out of the coalition mindset in Uttar Pradesh will be an extremely ambitious step considering the miserable state of the Congress at present. The Congress was not taken on board by the SP-BSP in the parliamentary elections, almost squeezing it out of the contest even before the election started.

The Congress performed badly, winning only one seat; even Rahul Gandhi lost his Amethi stronghold.

While the BJP polled a whopping 49.6 per cent votes, the SP and the BSP got 18 per cent and 19.26 per cent in comparison to the Congress’s pathetic 6.3 per cent.

Interestingly, all the Congress office-bearers working in Uttar Pradesh had forcefully suggested a go-alone strategy in the last Assembly election too but the high command had overruled them by aligning with the SP, which was facing anti-incumbency.

After running a campaign of “27 saal/UP behal” for months, the central leadership conducted a stunning somersault by embracing Akhilesh Yadav and the result again was absolutely shocking.

Calls for avoiding coalition politics have emanated from several states after the disastrous parliamentary election results. While the alliance with the Janata Dal Secular in Karnataka is almost over, the majority of leaders from Bihar have demanded end of relations with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). In Maharashtra too, though the Congress is fighting the election in alliance with Sharad Pawar’s NCP, the majority of leaders were in favour of fighting alone.

Many in the Congress believe the revival process should be started from the scratch in every state instead of opting for the easier way of relying on regional players for survival. The alliance strategy did not work, except in Tamil Nadu, in the last parliamentary elections and Prime Minister Narendra Modi succeeded in discrediting the coalition of secular forces by projecting it as an opportunistic strategy driven solely by the motive to oust him.

The Congress may adopt a formal position after the next round of Assembly elections at an AICC session or a brainstorming conclave early next year, stressing the need to strengthen and expand the party instead of sacrificing its political interests for coalition.

No final decision has been taken so far but the churning in the party suggests the dominant view is for going it alone.