oppn parties The Congress Party: Going Further Down

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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. 

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