After over a month of a relentless campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation decision announced on November 8, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today led a delegation of party leaders to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to discuss the party’s proposal to waive farmers’ loans and increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agricultural produce.

Curiously, today was the last day of the washed-out winter session of Parliament. Throughout the session, both opposition parties and the government kept blaming each other for disrupting parliamentary proceedings and no breakthrough could be made.

One can’t say for sure as to who is responsible for the washout. It may also be possible that none of the parties, including BJP, wanted to discuss demonetisation inside the Parliament. For bigger politics is playing outside, on the streets. Under these circumstances, it is apparent that Rahul-Modi meet was not just for the sake of farmers.

Farm loan waiver and rise in MSP are some of the crucial poll planks of the Congress for the upcoming Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. During a month-long rally in the state recently, Rahul had toured across UP and promised a loan waiver worth Rs 50,000 crore if the Congress wins the polls.

Selecting last day of the washed-out winter session to meet PM Modi, was certainly a strategic move by the Congress. Now, Congress leaders can convince supporters that they are serious about their promises to farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

The politics behind Rahul-Modi meet was exposed when parties like Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) skipped a delegation of opposition parties that met President Pranab Mukherjee even as ruckus continued in Parliament today.

Both SP and BSP are main contenders for power in Uttar Pradesh, while Congress is trying to regain its lost fortunes in the state after 27 years.

Interestingly, a Congress-SP alliance appeared to be happening a few days ago when UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said such an alliance would win over 300 seats in the Assembly elections.

For now, the alliance talks appear as rumours in times of hyper politics. The political battleground now shifts from Parliament to Uttar Pradesh as the state gears up for a four-cornered contest among SP, BSP, Congress and BJP.