Congress’s first non-Gandhi president in 24 years; mapping the downfall of the party since 2014
Congress’s efforts to revive the party through presidential elections in addition to outreach initiatives like the Bharat Jodo Yatra appear to be the only ways to escape the quagmire.
Mallikarjun Kharge defeated Shashi Tharoor to become the first non-Gandhi Congress president in 24 years. According to party MP Randeep Surjewala, he would start his new position on 26 October.
Following the results of the vote counting, Kharge was named the winner of the Congress president election. As per Madhusudan Mistry, chairman of the central election authority for the party, Kharge garnered 7,897 votes, while Tharoor received 1,072 votes, out of a total of 9,385 cast. The remaining 416 votes were deemed invalid.
Separately, Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, has been on his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ for almost a month now. The Congress party seeks to revive itself with the 3,570-km, 150-day-long foot march that has been hailed as its largest recent mass engagement programme.
Downhill since 2014
In terms of the seats won in the Lok Sabha elections, the Indian National Congress (INC) has seen a significant dropoff since 2014. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it gained 52 seats, a little rise over the 44 seats it won in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It just so happens that it no longer has a stronghold in several States where it once had one. Party members quitting the party have caused it to lose members, which has hurt its ranks. Along with the decline in vote share, its base of support has also shrunk.
The visualization below explains the vote share that the Indian National Congress received in the Lok Sabha elections from the 1951 first general elections after the nation gained its independence till 2019. The INC had a vote share greater than 30% from 1951 to 1984, with the exception of 1977. The party’s performance as a national party has declined, as seen by the sharp reduction in seats gained in 2014 and 2019, when the vote share was less than 20%.
The political landscape of India between the years of 2012 and 2022 is depicted on maps below. The INC was in power in 12 of India’s 28 States in 2012, while the BJP had power in just five of those States. The Congress only held office in two States in 2022—Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh—while it was allied with the party in power in Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and Jharkhand. BJP, on the other hand, is in charge in 16 States. In the Northeast States in 2012, the Congress was in charge. But by 2022, the BJP had eliminated the influence of the Congress in the region.
While there are many variables contributing to the Congress party’s downfall, their woes have been made worse by the party’s adamant opposition to internal structural changes, the crisis in its leadership, and its failure to overthrow the current administration.
The Congress has hit its lowest point, and efforts to revive the party through presidential elections in addition to outreach initiatives like the Bharat Jodo Yatra appear to be the only ways to escape the quagmire. It will be interesting to see a non-Gandhi president be the face of the party.
