Congress, the grand old party of India which used to rule most of the states as well as at the centre till the 1990s, is slowly becoming a liability for its alliance partners. In the Bihar assembly election 2020, the party is leading only on 18 seats out of 70 it contested at the time this article was being written. This brings the strike rate of the party around 25 percent, one of the lowest among all the parties which contested the election.
Congress’ strike rate is equivalent to that of Communist parties which contest on a large number of seats but get less votes than even NOTA. Even small regional parties like Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) of Mukesh Sahni, which is part of the NDA, is leading on 5 seats out of 11 it contested, which takes its possible strike rate at 50 percent, almost double of Congress.
On most of the seats Congress contested against BJP which is leading in 75 seats out of 110 it contested, which takes its possible strike rate around 70 percent, almost one third to that of the grand old party. JD(U), the party which is facing anti-incumbency of 15 years and massive anger against Nitish Kumar, is leading on 51 seats out of 115 it contested which takes its possible strike rate around 40 percent, 15 percent better than the Congress party. Among the 22 seats on which JD(U) is facing a Congress candidate, it is leading on most of them.
On the other hand, the seats on which JD(U) is facing RJD, its possible strike rate is around 20 percent. RJD, which contested on 144 seats, is leading on 63 seats which takes its strike rate at around 45 percent. Left parties, which contested on 29 seats, are leading on 19 with a better strike rate than Congress as well RJD.
Congress has become a liability on the alliance partners and slowly one party after another is discarding it. In Tamil Nadu, DMK blamed the poor strike rate of the Congress party for its performance as it won only 8 seats out of 41 it contested in 2016 assembly election. Similarly, in the UP election in 2017, Congress won only 7 seats out of 105 it contested. In almost every state, whenever a regional party allies with Congress, the chances of its victory gets further reduced given the poor strike rate of the party. In states like UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, TamilNadu, Congress is almost wiped out and it goes to regional players with a begging hand for more number of seats and ultimately causes their downfall.