The massive downfall of the Congress

With the result of the Karnataka elections, the Indian National Congress (INC) has lost the last battle before 2019.  The mainstream media and the sycophants around the Congress were trying to create the narrative that the Congress will finally emerge victorious in Karnataka. The Karnataka elections were being largely projected as a comeback for the Congress, emergence of Siddaramaiah as the next big thing in the Indian politics and arrival of Rahul Gandhi on the national stage in a big way. However, the myths propagated prior to the elections have been busted and it has exposed the dire state of the Congress.

The Congress and the JD(S) have barely managed to stop the BJP from reaching the clear majority mark on its own. As deciphered by the tfipost.com, the Congress left no stone unturned in trying to form an unholy alliance with the JD(S). The BJP clearly has the electorate’s mandate to form a government in Karnataka. Irrespective of who forms the government in Karnataka, it is clear that the INC is the ultimate loser in the present political context. The Congress has agreed to forego the post of the Chief Minister in the state and has agreed on the name of H.D. Kumaraswamy. Thus, the Congress with 78 odd MLAs will allow a JD(S) Chief Minister at a time, when JD(S) managed to win just 37 seats in the elections . This indicates how the Congress is playing second fiddle to regional satraps and has no self-respect when it comes to ensuring its survival.

The Congress is going through its worst phase since its inception. There were times in the past when the Congress’ fortunes dwindled like the backlash following dictatorial emergency imposed on the nation by Indira Gandhi and the embarrassing fall of Rajeev Gandhi’s government. However, never has any political turmoil lasted so long for the Congress. Usually, the Congress came back as a slightly weaker force but it could easily stake the claim of pan-India party. But in the past four years since 2014 the Congress has never shown the promise of recovering from the dire state that it is in.

When the INC went on a spree of defeats in India’s political history, political commentators especially those having a soft corner for the INC labeled the historic moment as a temporary phenomenon favoring the BJP. The INC party that was once the political hegemony of India is now reduced to the status worse than that of a regional satrap.

The INC has lost almost all states in which it was in power in 2014. In back to back defeats, the INC has lost fourteen assembly elections to the BJP led by PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah. In 2014, the INC was ruling in 15 states while the BJP was in power merely in 8 states. However, in a short span of four years there has been a political turnaround like never before. Today the BJP is in power in 21 states, while the Congress is reduced to merely two states and a union territory. Out of even this tiny tally, the Congress seems to be struggling in Karnataka given that BJP needs merely 9 MLAs to form a government in Karnataka. If the Congress ends up losing Karnataka also, it will not be in power in any politically significant state. As far as Punjab is concerned, it is an open secret that Chief Minister Amarinder Singh won and rules Punjab by himself. The INC high command and central leadership has virtually no role to play.

The dire state of the INC will have far-reaching ramifications as far as the 2019 polls are concerned. Even if an anti-BJP front is forged out of frustration by the opposition there will be no central force governing it. The INC has gone down in status along with numbers. After 2014 elections, the INC was initially projected as a direct challenger to the BJP, thereafter it tried to showcase itself as the leader of anti-BJP forces and finally it has been relegated into a second fiddle to the regional groupings.