Congress indicates supporting BSP in UP

The Congress on Friday indicated that it could support the BSP in forming the next government in Uttar Pradesh with All India Congress Committee general secretary Ashok Gehlot saying that all possibilities are there in politics.

Gehlot told PTI that it was for the Congress president and the party high command to decide on the issue of support and the form in which it has to be extended.

Party sources said that a meeting of the Congress Working Committee was likely in a day or two to take a decision on the issue.

The AICC general secretary, who is in charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, said that there was no cause for demoralisation in the organisation over the outcome.

This, he said, was because of the fact that Rahul Gandhi had himself stated that the party was mainly working with an aim to strengthen itself in the 2009 general elections.

Dismissing suggestions that the Rahul card has failed, he said that in fact the young Amethi MP had been able to bring issue-based politics at the centre stage in a state known for politics of caste and religion.

He said the declining graph of the BJP was proof enough that the young leader has succeeded in his endeavour.

Gehlot said that the election would certainly see a rise in vote percentage of the party, indicating that the party was coming out of the political fringe.

He said that the Congress could not put up a better show in view of the fact that the people were determined to put an end to the "misrule" of the Samajwadi Party and felt that some other party was in a better position to do that.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said various options, including extending a "broad issue based support" to the BSP, are open and the party would take a decision once the picture becomes clear.

"Without joining the government and sitting in the opposition, we can extend a broad issue based support to the government," he said.