Setback for Congress

The election results of the five states clearly reflect that the grand old party Congress' bad days that started with the worst-ever defeat in the last Lok Sabha two years back in 2014 are yet to over. Its political space is shrinking year by year since May 2014. The results for the five state assemblies are a great setback for the party. It has badly lost Assam and Kerala where it was ruling. These defeats also reflect that the Congress party did not think how to remove the mess set in its functioning in the last two years. These defeats of the Congress show that the party has no plan to retrieve its pre-imminent position in the country. If this shrinking trends continue for one or two more years, Congress party may be nowhere in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress lost power in Assam and Kerala. Congress had been ruling in Assam for the last 15 years. Anti-incumbency factor might have gone against it, but what the party did to neutralize it to win for the fourth consecutive time to create history. It has been the tradition in Kerala politics that after every five years, the govt. changes. As United Democratic Front led by Congress was ruling in the state for the last five years, Left Democratic Front LDF would rule for the coming five years with its victory in these assembly elections. In Assam, Congress has been badly defeated by the BJP. And for the first time, BJP would form the government in Assam. It would open a window for it in the north-eastern states as Karnataka did for it in the south. Except Assam, ruling BJP has not done anything spectacular in other states according to its national stature. It is through polarizing of votes that it won Assam. Chief Minister Mamta Bannerji has recorded spectacular victory for the second consecutive time in West Bengal. Her Trinamul Congresss pulverized Left-Congress coalition. She has emerged as one of the tallest regional leaders of the country. Despite allegation of corruption against her govt., her party has recorded massive victory. Mamta's TMC has won more number of seats in these assembly elections than what it had won in 2011. Though BJP has expanded its space in West Bengal, it is still at the fourth place. Mamta also showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the people of Bengal would not be carried away by his tall talks in the electioneering. In Tamil Nadu, AIADM supremo and Chief Minister Jayalaliththa got back to power for the second time in row by defeating the DMK-Congress alliance comfortably. The emergence of two women Mamta and Jaya as strong regional leaders clearly reflect that no national leader of any national party has guts to challenge them in their states Left is getting weaker and weaker with its position slipping to the third in West Bengal where it had ruled for 34 years. Mamta Bannerji has emerged as the lioness of Bengal. She has decimated the Left in the state. The time has come for the Congress to introspect that why once ruling all over India is finding dificult to retain power even in a few states. Except Karnataka, no big state of the nation is under its rule. The root cause of its continuing defeat is its organizational weakness. The party has no leader in the state who could lead it to victory. All leaders and workers are dependent on Party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi. But neither Sonia nor Rahul is a charishmatic leader like Pt. Nehru, Indiara Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress party organization in states has become so weak that it can not fight elections on its own in most of the politically important states. While it is a fact that Congress party sympathisers and followers can be found in every village of the country. Congress organizational set up from the village to state level need to be overhauled to retrieve party's pre-imminent position.