The Congress' run-up to the polls has begun on a mixed note. On Sunday night, the party added two new allies, Trinamool in Bengal and Samajwadi Party in UP. It, however, failed to sew up an alliance with the JD(S) in Karnataka. It is also having trouble with the NCP, which wants a national-level alliance in addition to renegotiating terms in Maharashtra. Despite the hiccups, the Congress appears confident.

"This is nothing unusual. Rest assured, all seat-sharing arrangements will be satisfactorily worked out by the time we go to elections," the party's election coordinator Jairam Ramesh said.

The Congress leadership realises that the key to retaining power is alliances. This despite the fact that the party has decided against having a national-level tie-up in continuance of its 2004 strategy of forging only state-level alliances. It has its task cut out in reconciling the growing ambitions of some of its allies to ensure that its tally of 145 in the last elections goes up.

To that end, the Congress is looking to contest a larger number of seats and is demanding a larger share from allies in UP and Bihar. The party had only 13 of the 140 seats in these states in the 14th Lok Sabha.

This time the Congress is looking to contest about 25 seats in UP, 10 in Bihar and eight of the 14 in Jharkhand. But so far, its allies have shown no inclination to oblige. They fear marginalisation and are playing hardball.

The Congress' quest for a larger share of seats and new allies stems from the fact that some of its existing allies such as the DMK in Tamil Nadu (TN) and RJD in Bihar appear to be on a slippery wicket. The party's poll managers expect to lose at least 10 of its existing 31 seats in Andhra, but hope to more than make up for it in Rajasthan and Punjab.

Congress strategists are also keeping the door open for post-poll alliances. One possibility is AIADMK, but to join hands with a more-than-willing Jayalalithaa, it will have to ditch the DMK.

"Right now, we have an alliance with the DMK 'is all AICC general secretary in-charge of TN, Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

Javed M Ansari/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication