Congress on Tuesday said it planned to go it alone in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls and would consider tie-ups only on its "own conditions and interests", a development that could queer the pitch for parties like Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Despite being a fringe player in the key state, the ruling party at the Centre is not looking at the polls for short term gains, but wants to emerge a crucial factor without whose leadership or partnership the next government is not possible.
"Our priority is to bring back the lost glory of the organisation on our own in a sustained manner and not to see any immediate profit or loss by going in for tie-ups," party general secretary Ashok Gehlot said in an interview.
His comment comes in the backdrop of reports that RLD leader Ajit Singh, currently part of the ruling alliance headed by Samajwadi Party leader and UP chief minister is in talks with Congress for possible tie-ups.
Party sources say that there have been two views in Congress over tie-up with RLD, apprehending that the Congress would be forced to play a second fiddle in western UP as Ajit Singh would demand the lion's share of seats.
"We will see that after the polls," Gehlot remarked when asked which parties were the natural allies of the Congress in UP -- Bahujan Samaj Party, RLD or Jan Morcha floated by V P Singh.
Targeting Mulayam Singh Yadav, he said that the SP and the BJP are "one and there is no difference between the two."
This, he said, is clear from the pension scheme announced by Yadav for those imprisoned during Emergency to "gain sympathy" of the saffron party.