(This story originally appeared in on Dec 19, 2016)

After a brave attempt to strike out on its own, Congress seems to have concluded it can salvage some pride in UP only by allying with SP, despite targeting the party as part of its "27 saal, UP behaal" campaign. If the alliance doesn't happen, Congress may find its enforced marginalisation further extended.It's been over two months since Rahul Gandhi ended his 26-day, 3,500km "Deoria to Delhi" yatra, and the party sees itself at a halt. A "Rahul Sandesh Yatra" saw local leaders following a van pushing the message of a "loan waiver" from October 15-27, but since then alliance chatter seems to have taken over.Even the announcement of a "Brahmin" CM candidate in Sheila Dikshit was obscured by speculation over Priyanka Gandhi's campaign plans, before this too petered out as Congress decided a high-profile effort featuring the Gandhi sibling was not worth the risk.While Rahul resumes the party cam paign with a rally in Jaunpur on Monday, the long gap has not only neutralised the momentum generated by the 26-day travel across the state, but also diluted the original plan of an extended six-month campaign to reach voters multiple times in order to drill the party's message. Congress campaign managers failed to think of a new programme and, intriguingly, even Rahul did not crack the whip. Clearly, the leadership is turning to the alternative option -a tie-up with SP.For SP, an alliance will come at some cost in terms of seats, but amplify the message about its "secular" credentials to influence Muslims being assiduously wooed by rival BSP. An SPCongress alliance will make UP polls seriously triangular, even as a section of Congress has often advocated an alli ance with BSP.An exercise to identify the focus of the now-aborted third phase of campaign short-listed a meagre 90 seats worth attention, indicating the party can settle for a modest tally as an alliance partner. Without SP, Congress may well struggle to retain its humble 2012 tally of 28 seats in the 403MLA assembly.