NEW DELHI: Banking on the "untouchability" factor that may prevent various political combinations from materialising in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress on Tuesday said it would have a say in the governing equation in the State. While it was certain that the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would not have a say, it was silent on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

However, Congress spokesman for Uttar Pradesh elections Devendra Dwivedi did not elaborate. The party's calculation is based on the bitterness that the Congress, BSP and the BJP harbour towards the SP, which will make any alliance with the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh impossible.

Similarly, the BSP will not tie up with the SP. And, the BJP has already made it clear that it will have no truck with the BSP. "Under the circumstances, the most likely possibility is a BSP-Congress alliance," he said.

Of the three other big parties, Mr. Dwivedi made clear the Congress preference for the BSP despite its caste bias. While stating that the BSP was also been practising vote-bank politics like the BJP and the SP by appealing to caste-based exclusivist loyalties, he made note of the fact that the BSP, had, of late begun talking of inclusive politics. Conceding that it could be an electoral ploy, he said the change in that party's politics was perceptible.

According to Mr. Dwivedi, the Congress had substantially succeeded in setting the agenda for electoral discourse in Uttar Pradesh by adding an ideological dimension to it. The party's campaign, he said, centred around how the State had suffered in the past 17 years on account of two political evils — communal and caste politics.

The sectarian politics had disconnected the State from the mainstream of national politics, which has weakened not only its politics but also national politics.

Stating that communal and caste-based politics had changed the idiom of politics and the means of political mobilisation in the State, Mr. Dwivedi said such was the state of affairs that ideology and political agenda had been replaced by caste and religion.

Though the Congress is aware of its limitations, he said it was with a view to change the nature of Uttar Pradesh politics that Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi took the stand that the only way the State can rejoin national politics is by rejecting the politics of caste and religion, and fighting elections on good governance, development and growth with equity.

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