Mahatma Gandhi once envisioned a future where the Congress would quietly transform into a public servant union after independence, fulfill its role and return power to the people. History, as it often does, chose drama instead. The party survived, grew older, heavier with legacy – and now, at 140, finds itself older than independent India and still engaged in the business of electoral survival.Founded in 1885, the Indian National Congress not only witnessed the making of modern India; It transcribed a large part of it. But fast forward to the present, and the party that once defined the political center is struggling to find it. The slogans are loud, the marches are long, the symbolism is familiar – but dominance has been replaced by damage control, and nostalgia no longer guarantees votes.
Now, moving into its 141st year, the Congress has little time to blow out birthday candles and even less room to get things wrong. A series of assembly elections in five states is shaping up to be its next reality check, testing whether fresh campaign calls, revived alliances, and the painful lessons of 2025 can finally add up. From reinventing protest politics to fighting crucial battles in the South and North-East, the grand old party is once again at the crossroads – older, wiser, and under pressure to prove that it still knows the way forward.
Does Congress need to change its campaign calls?
Save the Constitution, vote theft, caste survey – these are some of the war slogans on which the Congress tried to campaign. Rahul Gandhi Walked for miles for this. The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha may have mesmerized those who supported him, but the votes did not come to his account.However, these campaign calls will come to a halt in 2026 as the grand old party has announced nationwide protests against the BJP-led central government for replacing the rural employment scheme – MNREGA – with the VB G-RAM-G law.Announcing the campaign from January 5, Mallikarjun Kharge at the CWC meeting said, “We also pledge to democratically oppose every conspiracy to remove Gandhiji’s name from MNREGA.”But the question is, will the people who need this scheme be related to the “conspiracy to remove Gandhiji’s name from MNREGA”?While the CWC release highlights what it describes as the systematic weakening of MNREGA, including unilateral changes to the structure of the scheme without consultation or parliamentary debate, the beneficiaries in whose name the Congress is mobilizing are unlikely to engage or prefer such detailed party statements.Also read: Rahul Gandhi walked 1,300 km, but Congress still kept falling
Battle in the South and Northeast
KeralaOf the five states where voting is to be held this year, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry Remains important for Congress. In these assembly elections, the party will have a direct contest with BJP or Left.The party is on high confidence with a strong comeback in the Kerala local body elections. However, the BJP-led NDA’s Trivandrum victory cannot be ignored.
The local body election results give the Congress-led UDF a clear strategic edge in the upcoming assembly elections. A pronounced anti-incumbency wave has shattered the LDF’s welfare and governance story, pushing the Left to its weakest grassroots position in years and hampering its bid for a third consecutive term.While the growing footprint of the BJP has complicated Kerala’s traditional bipolar contest, the erosion of LDF dominance gives the UDF a renewed stake in momentum, credibility and as the dominant option as the assembly fight approaches.AssamAfter its defeat in Assam in 2016 – fueled by deep anti-incumbency, the BJP strengthening its alliance and voter frustration over corruption, jobs and governance – the Congress is recalibrating its approach. This time, the party is working on a grassroots-first strategy through its “Raizor Podulit Raizor Congress” campaign, which aims to rebuild credibility from the bottom up. By gathering inputs for its manifesto through thousands of “aspirational boxes” and through sustained community outreach across all sectors, the Congress is trying to address precisely the issues that caused it to lose power earlier: employment, fair wages for tea workers, flood management, public health and governance delivery.At the organizational level, the Congress is also projecting itself as the anchor of a broad opposition alliance to take on the BJP, while trying to avoid the fragmentation that has helped its rivals in the past.However, the decision to contest 100 out of 126 seats has exposed the flaws within the alliance, making seat-sharing and coordination a major test of leadership. Balancing assertiveness with accommodation, converting consultations into votes, and countering the BJP’s tangled narrative on identity and development remain the party’s central challenges as it seeks to convert the fresh mobilization into an electoral comeback in Assam.Tamil NaduThe Congress finds itself walking a tightrope in the DMK-led alliance. While it looks to improve its bargaining position by pushing for a higher number of seats, the party will have to contend with its relatively weak independent base and the DMK’s clear upper hand in the state.
The party’s challenge lies in projecting relevance and cohesion without appearing disruptive, ensuring smooth coordination at the grassroots level for vote transfer and managing internal ambitions – all this while avoiding tensions in a long-standing alliance that is crucial for its electoral survival in Tamil Nadu.Contradictory actions by individual leaders, including high-profile meetings outside the coalition framework, have raised doubts about unity and discipline, even if these are primarily aimed at strengthening the Congress’s hand in negotiations. west bengalThe Congress is entering the West Bengal elections facing an existential challenge due to years of continuous decline and shrinking political space. From being a significant player with its strongholds in Malda and Murshidabad a decade ago, the party has become almost irrelevant, winning no seats in the 2021 assembly elections and also losing its traditional base. This decline has coincided with the rapid rise of the BJP as the principal opposition to the Trinamool Congress, taking the Congress out of the bipolar contest. To add to the problem, Mamata Banerjee is insisting on going it alone, closing the doors to any meaningful alliance and reducing the bargaining power of the Congress to zero.
With no key leader, a weak organization and little clarity on whether it is fighting for seats, vote share or mere visibility, the Congress is struggling not only to gain relevance in the 2026 battle but also to remain a credible political force in Bengal.
Team Rahul vs Team Priyanka
Recent comments in and around the Congress have given fresh impetus to the question of whether the party is informally projecting Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as a major leadership option amid its ongoing brainstorming.
Priyanka Gandhi The letter from former Odisha MLA Mohammed Mokim, which questions Mallikarjun Kharge’s effectiveness and explicitly cites age and youth alienation, reflects deep concerns within a section of the party about stagnation and electoral drift. Priyanka’s support – from Imran Masood projecting her as the prime ministerial face to Robert Vadra’s acceptance of growing demands – indicates an undercurrent that sees her as a potential unifier who can reconnect the party with voters. Rather than an outright leadership challenge, the episode points to a Congress that is struggling to balance generational renewal, organizational reform and its continued reliance on the Gandhi family, with Priyanka emerging less as a declared option and more as a symbol of unresolved succession questions.
Rahul was looking a little too much? A look at 2025
2025 was a year of agitation without payment for the Congress. Rahul Gandhi’s 1,300-km journey spanning 25 districts and 110 seats in Bihar was filled with slogans, symbolism and carefully crafted local flavour. From gamchha and Bhojpuri soundbites to makhana and motorcycle rides, the reach was wide-ranging. There were no results. Voters demonstrated but did not support the Congress, leading the party to one of its weakest showings in the state and once again exposing the gap between optics and organization.
This divide was visible across the electoral map. The promise of 2024 Lok Sabha seems to be in vain in the 2025 assembly elections of Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. Haryana slipped away amid factional feuds and the absence of a decisive state leader. Coalition fatigue within the MVA in Maharashtra blunted the influence of the Congress. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the BJP machine, backed by Narendra Modi’s enduring hold, gave momentum to the Congress’ campaigns. Delhi was written off. Jharkhand stood out, where the Congress survived riding on a strong JMM alliance and a welfare-driven pitch – less a resurgence than a reminder of where the party still stands.Rahul Gandhi ensured that the Congress never disappeared from the headlines, intensifying his attacks with claims of “vote theft” and warnings of systemic voter fraud. Rhetoric kept the narrative alive, but elections are won on the ground, not in press conferences. By the end of 2025, the decision was difficult to avoid: Congress could still initiate negotiations, but without organizational discipline and credible state leadership, it would continue to lose the contest.
