With less than two months to go for the 2017 assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh remains anybody's game. "Anything can happen," "hung assembly," "khichdi," "nothing is clear," are the words you hear, no matter who you ask.


There is, however, one certainty -- that the Congress party is not in the race, unless it succeeds in convincing 'Netaji' Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party supremo, to ally with it. he Congress party office in Mall Avenue, the heart of the city, looks like a wedding venue all dressed up, but the bride has run away. The car park is full with cars that still wear outdated banners of Rahul Gandhi's kisan yatra, or even before that, the Sheila Dikshit bus campaign across the state, '27 saal, UP behaal'.


Twenty seven years the Congress hasn't been in power, the message goes, leaving UP is in a mess.The Congress itself is in no mess. It's in a near-coma. For all these rows of cars, where are its occupants? They have gone home, it would appear, waiting for the bride to return.  Read more