NEW DELHI: The Congress stocktaking on UP assembly elections has blamed the alliance with SP , lack of coordination between various units, mismatch with team PK and failure to take forward campaigns like Kisan Maangpatras for the rout.ET has learnt that after three rounds the verdict has been that the alliance with SP damaged the Congress and made it appear like a ‘Muslim party’.A review and planning meeting was held at the Congress war room in Delhi and UPCC headquarters in Lucknow, on April 15 and 16, attended by 103 district and 129 city presidents from all across UP, chaired by AICC general secretary in charge of UP, Ghulam Nabi Azad and UPCC president Raj Babbar.This was followed up by two other meetings, where participants were asked to give honest feedback on the role of various Congress departments and weaknesses in the campaign besides suggestions for improvement. Some of the findings are:It was felt that the party would have done much better if it contested alone. The unnatural alliance with SP made many perceive Congress as a ‘Muslim party’ and alienated large segment of voters. On the other hand, the RSS reached door to door with Hindu identity messages, which the Congress in alliance with SP was unable to effectively counter. There is also considerable anger over this alliance being put together in secrecy, with little consultation with party workers.Brahmin voters were antagonised when the Sheila Dikshit project made way for an alliance with SP. Dalits who favour Congress also decisively turned away as Yadavs are their chief tormentors in the state. SP’s anti-incumbency burden didn’t help either. The alliance meant that the party had no presence in about 20 districts and contesting in just 70 of the 100 plus seats allocated to it. In many seats, SP candidates contested on the Congress symbol disheartening many. Congress VP Rahul Gandhi’s image was undermined when he appeared as a junior partner to Akhilesh Yadav , a point raised in the meetings on April 15-16.The mismatch with Team PK has been cited as another key reason for the defeat. Most candidates complained that Prashant Kishor’s team gave little or no support to them, was absent in most constituencies and ended up complicating things for candidates where they turned up. Frontal organisation members said that Kishor and his team only worked to undermine Congress and had collected data that it could misuse in 2019.Questions were raised on why he was not held accountable and he was criticised for outsourcing key exercises to an external agency. Around 4,300 people applied for a Congress ticket and spent `3-5 lakh to meet Kishor’ requirements. Ultimately, very few candidates got tickets but no effort was made to reach out to them. They joined hands with other parties upset at this treatment.There was complete lack of coordinationacross almost all levels, including UPCC administration and organisation levels. Star campaigner meetings were badly managed, cancelled at short notice after candidates invested money and time in organising events. There was immense confusion of selection of candidates and tickets distribution done late leaving candidates little time to campaign. Booth management was poor too. At the March meeting, partymen said Congress frontals, cells and departments were ignored during the campaign and no resource support given to them.The Congress campaign ‘27 saal, UP behaal’ boomeranged after the tieup. Kisan Maangpatras launched before alliance begun to create a buzz but had to be abandoned post-alliance. Farmers, candidates said, felt cheated and turned against the Congress. The UP reviews sounded a warning bell against any grand alliance, saying that it would sound the death knell of the Congress.