New Delhi: Keeping its option for a post-poll alliance open and evidently countering the pressure from its allies Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party, the Congress today ruled out any “national alliance” preferring to go with “state-specific” alliances in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election.

“Alliance is basically a game of numbers. It depends on who gets how many seats. This will be clear only after the elections...Hypothetically speaking, if the Congress gets an absolute majority, the situation will be different,” AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi said after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) here today.

“We do not have an alliance at the national level. We have alliance partners and seat adjustments at the state level,” he said. Rahul Gandhi reportedly said at the CWC meeting that there should be different yardsticks for alliances in different states depending on the strength of the Congress in these states.

This comes barely a week after the NCP, which has been in favour of the UPA contesting together in the election, demanded a meeting of the UPA coordination committee to discuss seat-sharing arrangements. NCP general secretary D P Tripathi had said — after his party’s working committee meeting last week — that since UPA partners were together in the government, an attempt should be made to contest the election together.

But the Congress argues that with the UPA ceasing to exist with the end of this government, it opens the door for it to hunt for new regional allies depending on the post-poll scenario. The decision not to have any national alliance also gives the Congress some leverage in dealing with allies like the NCP, which staked claim on 45 seats spread over different states, and the SP, which wants an alliance with the Congress in several states. Also, the NCP’s talk of reaching out to the Left and floating Sharad Pawar’s name as a possible Prime Ministerial candidate have been heard loud and clear in the Congress.

Dwivedi denied that the UPA was disintegrating. “Of course, there is UPA. But UPA does not fight elections. It is the political parties in UPA which contest elections,” he said adding that seat sharing will differ from state to state. “The state leadership will keep in view the local situation and the state level party and take a decision with the support of the AICC,” he said adding, “The Congress will seek votes on its own, except where it is in alliance”.