New Delhi, Jan 2: The Congress endured another gloomy year in 2025, as it posted one of its worst performances in Bihar and Delhi assembly polls, and battled internal factionalism in Karnataka, one of the only three states the party rules on its own.
Promising results in the Kerala local body polls offered a flicker of hope for the grand old party that looks for a revival in 2026.
Top Congress leaders, including organisation general secretary KC Venugopal, described the Kerala local body poll results as a sign of things to come in this year’s state elections, where the Congress-led United Democratic Front will face off against the incumbent Left Democratic Front for power.
The Congress is equally banking on Assam to reverse its electoral fortunes, although it remains acutely conscious of the formidable opponent in Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of the BJP.
Elections apart, the principal opposition party continued to struggle on the organisational front, with seniors openly demanding strengthening the organisation at the grassroots. The demands cropped up towards the fag end of 2025, with a large section of the party convinced that frontal bodies have to step up for the parent organisation to revive.
Party veteran Digvijaya Singh led the demand for organisational revamp, hailing the model of the ruling BJP’s mothership RSS as a disciplined cadre force. Congress outlier Shashi Tharoor backed Singh.
As the party negotiated tough terrains on multiple fronts in 2025, it moved into a permanent home – Indira Bhavan – in central Delhi. The official inauguration of the plush headquarters took place on January 15, 2025, marking an end to the Congress’ 50-year stay at the iconic 24, Akbar Road, bungalow.
The shift to a new abode was quickly followed by a major electoral drubbing for the Congress in Delhi, as it failed to win a single seat in the assembly for a second time in a row. The BJP trounced the AAP in the polls and returned to power in the city after 27 years.
Later in the year, the party suffered yet another face loss, this time in Bihar. The Congress posted its second-worst performance in electoral history, managing to win only six of the over 50 seats it contested in the state and losing deposits in most seats as its “vote chori” pitch failed to make any impact on the ground.
The party could manage to just finish ahead of Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), each of which bagged five seats.
In the bypolls held on various seats during the year, it was a mixed bag for the Congress. However, its loss in Punjab’s Tarn Taran assembly bypoll to the ruling AAP has raised questions about the party’s chances to come back to power in the state in 2027.
While the Congress tried to set the political narratives for most part of the year with its continued attack on the BJP over the “change of Constitution” barb, its aggressive approach on the “vote chori” charge against the ruling dispensation and the Election Commission did not translate into votes as it had expected in Bihar. Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, a consistent anti-Election Commission and anti-SIR narrative, and his appeals to ‘Gen Z’ to “restore democracy” had no takers in the politically sensitive state.
While the election results of 2025 acted as a dampener for the party cadres, the victory in local body elections in Kerala is giving the party a ray of hope in the southern state. (PTI)
