oppn parties The Congress Party: Going Further Down

Story Of The Day

A 2,458-Point Rally Is Not Yet A Recovery

November 07, 2026

People Are Talking About

People Are Talking About Junk Food Near Schools

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
oppn parties
The Congress Party: Going Further Down

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-03-10 10:07:43

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The trends of the election results in five states have one thing in common - that the Congress, the grand old party of India, is perilously close to extinction in many states and is fast losing its remaining supporters in others. It has become the Grand Oblivion Party as it is increasingly becoming unaware of what is happening around it and does not know how to stop the ground from slipping under its feet.

Take the trends for Uttar Pradesh. The party has never been a serious contender in the state for more than three decades (the last Congress government in the state was when Narayan Dutt Tiwari was chief minister in 1988-89). In 2017, it had won 7 seats with 6.25% vote share which was 5.4% lower than in 2012. This time, it is ahead in just two seats and its vote share has gone down by nearly 4%. Clearly, it faces the danger of being completely wiped out in India's biggest and politically most important state. Despite its many attempts in successive elections (this time, Priyanka Vadra had taken over and recognizing the power of women voters, launched a special Ladki Hun Lad Sakti Hun campaign to woo them), the Congress has not been able to win back the voters. It does not find support even in erstwhile family fiefdoms of Rae Bareilly and Amethi. 

In Punjab, the party could not fight back the anti-incumbency wave and the infighting in the party and Navjot Singh Sidhu's dramatics did it in. It is set to lose 59 seats and a huge percentage of vote share. All its stalwarts, including Sidhu and chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi (from both seats) are likely to lose. The party high command could not handle the state well and made the mistake of vilifying Arvind Kejriwal when it was clear that support was building up for AAP. Further, the free rein it gave to Sidhu damaged the party's prospects as the voters were left confused as to who was the real boss. It would be very difficult for the Congress to recover the lost ground in the state unless it brings in new faces as the old guard has been rejected by the voters.

In Uttaranchal, the party could not take advantage of the clearly visible anti-incumbency wave against the BJP government. In that sense, the BJP victory is as much a positive vote for the party as it is a negative vote against the Congress. In this state too, the faction-ridden Congress could not convince the voters to vote for it. The same story repeated in Goa where the people's disenchantment with the BJP government could not be used by the Congress to its advantage. The tall talk of not letting the BJP hijack the mandate like it did in 2017 came to naught as the party could not get the numbers. With leads in just 12 seats, the Congress cannot hope to form the government even with the help of local parties. In Manipur too, the party has been reduced to leads in just 9 seats and is down by 19 seats.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi talked of "revamp" and "rewiring" after it became clear that the party was getting routed everywhere. But isn't the party doing that since 2014? Since it is not getting the results even after several rounds of revamping and rewiring, isn't it time for the Gandhis to quit and let others with a contemporary political view run the party? For, it is clear that Rahul Gandhi's one point agenda of targeting Narendra Modi is not working. The Congress needs fresh blood and fresh ideas which the Gandhis are clearly not capable of providing. With its dismal performance in this round of elections, the Congress has also lost the voice to claim that it be given the pole position in an alliance of  Opposition parties. 

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

A Bench in Chennai Is Not the Answer to a Bench in Every Capital

A Bench in Chennai Is Not the Answer to a Bench in Every Capital

 Gold At Astana Must Become a System, Not a Story

Gold At Astana Must Become a System, Not a Story

In Depth

Grounds Of Arrest: The Supreme Court's Rule Must Be Followed By The Police On The Ground

Grounds Of Arrest: The Supreme Court's Rule Must Be Followed By The Police On The Ground

Editor's Pick

For the Goonj to Reverberate, Rahul Gandhi Must Take Regional Parties Along

For the Goonj to Reverberate, Rahul Gandhi Must Take Regional Parties Along
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.