Assembly Election Results: Congress’ Downfall A Complete Setback Or Beginning Of PHOENIX Phenomenon?


As the results are pouring in for the five state Assembly elections, Congress’ downfall continues and its performance is under serious questions. A national party that has ruled India over multiple decades is losing out its charm and moreover its connection with the masses.

In the last few years, it has been seen that the Congress leaders are not able to hold the cord of the public matters. Despite having the status of national party, its other regional associates are performing much better in different states across the nation.

Why Is Congress Losing Its Ground?

There are multiple factors that are responsible for poor performance by the Congress.

The first is the inability to face the ruling government. It would not be wrong to say that the way Congress surrendered in front of BJP between 2014-2019 is one of the main reasons for its present performance.

BJP always surrounds Congress on issues like nepotism, nationalism, using minorities for vote bank, corruption and religious bifurcation.

BJP works under one core unit and it is one of the factors that strengthen its mandate with public. Whereas, the internal turmoil in the Congress itself is also a reason to weaken its own players. Like the G-23 letter by the Congress party members shows the miscommunication between the leaders from the top down.

The Second reason for the failure is the image propagated by the social and electronic media of Rahul Gandhi. The BJP IT cell remained successful in showing RaGa as “Pappu”.

As Rahul Gandhi is the main face after Sonia Gandhi, present day president of the Congress party. So his portrayal of a rich politician who is enjoying politics because of the family and not because of the merit, has targeted the rural people well.

The Third Reason is the absence of clear and new strategies in the vision of the Congress party. The party workers not able to convey the message and mission on the streets is also a factor to bring the defeat. Besides a few leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor etc, most of them make public appearances occasionally . That’s why BJP tag them as tweet politicians, as they sit comfortably in their AC rooms and tweet.

Does Congress’ Hope Lie In Priyanka Gandhi?

Priyanka Gandhi, the general secretary of INC, is one of the last hope for revival of the Congress party in the future. But it won’t be easy for her as she has to rise above the same allegations that are against his brother Rahul Gandhi. Like those of nepotism and nationalism.

Recently, her connection with common people can be seen as a small ray of hope for a drowning party. Her campaign in UP “Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon” became popular.

Priyanka is actively participating in issues of unemployment, women’s safety, farmers’ issues etc time to time. Her hardwork on the ground will definitely help her in long term.  In common man eyes also she can prove to be a better leader if given chance.

Phoenix Phenomenon

We all are aware of the fact that the bird Phoenix, who is considered as immortal rises from its ashes. Similarly, is this the beginning of this era for the Congress party? Well, it is not impossible as we have seen BJP rising from nowhere to the largest democratic party at present.

Politics in India is a multi-layer process as it involves matters of religion, caste, creed which usually overshadows the basic day to day matters. Like at present, BJP has seen much resistance from opposition on issues like farmers’ protests, unemployment, rising inflation, shattering economy, rocketing fuel prices etc. Yet today, the results show that BJP is able to sweep these issues and can win elections with polarization of Hindu-Muslim and nationalism.