UP Polls: Room limited for political reform, says BS editor

AK Bhattacharya, managing editor of Business Standard spoke to CNBC-TV18 about his expectations about the UP poll results.

Below is the edited transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video. Q: The general expectation in business circles and market circles was that it will be a Congress plus SP government and therefore, the Congress will have far more political elbowroom at the Centre, and can even dispense with the Trinamool Congress if required on some specific measures. Do you think that is under threat now, given the kind of dominance that most people are expecting from the SP in the results tomorrow? Bhattacharya: I largely agree with what you are saying here because I think the expectation was that the Congress will be little more free in deciding what it wants to do with the state of the economy and its policies, in particular because next week you have Budget, you have the railway budget, you have the economic survey and you also have the monetary policy. So there was an expectation that Congress will be little more free from the burden of its existing coalition partners and perhaps, the UP election will give it some elbowroom with a new coalition partner coming in so that its maneuvering ability will be a little better. I don