From successive Lok Sabha wins to historic low: The rise and fall of Congress under Sonia, Rahul Gandhi | India News
Sonia Gandhi, 75, has been at the party’s helm since March 14, 1998 — barring the two years between 2017 and 2019 when Rahul Gandhi took over — making her the longest-serving president in the party’s 137-year-long history.
In the period, the party was in power at the Centre for 10 years and then hit a historic low, leaving behind a massive challenge for the next party president.
Four general elections
The party has contested four general elections under Sonia’s leadership, the first one in September 1999 — around 18 months after she took over.
But before she faced her first major electoral test, Sonia had to deal with an internal rebellion led by three senior leaders: Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma, and Tariq Anwar, who attacked her credibility due to her foreign origins and political inexperience.
She offered to resign but an outpouring of support eventually led to the expulsion of the three rebels who went on to form the Nationalist Congress Party.
Challenge to presidency
In the 1999 general election, the BJP managed to form a coalition government (National Democratic Alliance) and went on to become the first non-Congress regime to complete a full term of 5 years.
Shortly after the defeat, Sonia’s presidency was once again challenged. Veteran leaders Rajesh Pilot and Jitendra Prasada started a campaign to take back control from Sonia. Pilot, however, died in a road crash in 2000, leaving Prasada to take on Gandhi by himself.
“I am contesting to uphold the right to dissent and internal democracy,” Prasada had said during his campaign for the party’s top post.
Despite a valiant effort by Prasada, Sonia’s inner circle and its influence held strong. Of the 7,542 valid votes in the November 2000 election, Prasada got just 94. Sonia polled 7,448, or 98.75%, of the votes cast by delegates of the Pradesh Congress Committees.
Prasada died a few months later in January 2001. His son, Jitin Prasada, is now a BJP minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.
Since 2000, Sonia Gandhi’s presidency has not been challenged.
10-year reign at Centre
After securing her space in the party, Sonia Gandhi launched a massive campaign to rival the BJP’s ‘India Shining’ initiative.
The campaign worked and a Congress-led coalition (United Progressive Alliance) managed to form the government in 2004. The party repeated the feat in 2009.
From the time Sonia Gandhi took over till 2009, the party registered an increase in the number of seats held by it in the Lok Sabha. It also saw a rise in seat share as well as a slight increase in vote share.
The decline
However, after the second term of the Manmohan Singh government ended in 2014, the party’s fortunes changed drastically and hit an all-time low.
In 2014, the party managed to win just 44 seats — down from 206 in 2009.
In 2019, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the party fared slightly better but still secured only 52 seats – a seat share of just 9.6%.
In comparison, the party had won a whopping 414 out of 541 seats in the 1984 elections — a seat share of 76%.
Its vote share also took a major hit, falling from 28.6% in 2009 to 19.3% in 2014. In 2019, its vote share was 19.5%.
Major defections
Since the 2014 defeat, the Congress has experienced a mass exodus of senior leaders – the latest being Ghulam Nabi Azad.
At least 460 leaders left Congress between 2014 and 2022. Around 177 MPs/MLAs left the party during elections, while 222 electoral candidates left the Congress for other parties.
In 2022 alone, 24 MLAs left the Congress to contest assembly elections on another party’s ticket. A total of 37 candidates left the Congress to join another party to contest polls.
Shrinking political footprint
The mass exodus coincided with a string of defeats in state elections as the party struggled to strike a chord with the voters.
Since 2014, the Congress has lost 40 out of 45 assembly polls.
Of the 20,847 assembly seats contested since 1998, the Congress has won just 5,397 — a strike rate of 26%.
When Sonia took over in 1998, the Congress had chief minister’s in 10 states. This rose to 16 in 2006.
In 2022, however, only two states – Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan – have a Congress chief minister.
The next chief
Sonia Gandhi is giving up the party’s top post at a time when the Congress is at the lowest point it’s ever been.
In two short years, India will hold its 18th general election. The next party president, either Mallikarjun Kharge or Shashi Tharoor, certainly has his work cut out for him.
