The Fading Congress Party

Who let the Mahagathbandhan down in Bihar? Which party could not secure one-sixth of the valid votes polled and had to forfeit the deposit in Nagaland? Which party has virtually been routed in the recently held bye-elections in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka? Expertise in electoral politics is not necessary to answer these questions, as everyone is aware that all these feats have been achieved by the Congress in the recently concluded Assembly elections in Bihar and by-elections in several states. In Bihar, the grand old party of Indian politics has managed to win only 19 seats though it fielded candidates in over 70 seats. If the party had done slightly better, the alliance could have reached the magic figure of 122 needed to capture power in Bihar. Due to the failure of the Congress, the alliance had to finish with 110, just 12 short of the majority mark. In the 60-Pungro-Kiphire Assembly constituency of Nagaland, the party has forfeited its deposit. In Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, the bye-elections were largely necessitated mainly by the exodus of Congress MLAs to BJP. But sadly, the party could not retain a single seat won in previous elections. It shows that the downward slide of the party is continuing all over the country.

Take the case of Bihar. Since 2015, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have been in alliance. Initially, Janata Dal (United) was also a part of the alliance. After JD (U) left the alliance, the Congress automatically promoted it to the second most important party in the alliance. By virtue of its newly found position in the alliance, Congress virtually forced RJD to concede 70-odd seats to the party. Many political observers had warned against conceding so many seats to the Congress. According to them, allowing the Congress to contest in so many seats is nothing but political suicide. They referred to Uttar Pradesh where during the last Assembly elections, after prolonged bargaining, the Congress managed to contest in 100 seats in alliance with Samajwadi Party (SP). The unjust and ambitious demand of the Congress actually helped the BJP cross the 300-mark in a house of 405.

But the Congress is in no mood to correct itself, it has a longstanding habit of biting off more than it can chew. The Congress as an alliance partner has proven to be a party that hurts its partners more than its political opponents. But the century-old party is not inclined to rejuvenate itself. In Bihar, Rahul Gandhi addressed only eight rallies, which is less than the number of rallies addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There was no trace of the party's two other vote catchers Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra during campaigning. While their opponents were leaving no stone unturned to secure a win, Congress leadership did not stand beside the party workers to lift their spirit. Will the Congress leadership change its style of functioning or simply perish without making an attempt to stage a comeback?