Congress hopes for revival in 2026
New Delhi: 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 K C 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 Digvijaya Singh.
Going forward, the Congress will draw solace from its recent success in local body elections in Kerala, which gave a ray of hope to the party that has been out of power in the state for close to a decade.
The road to power in Kerala is likely to be rough, given the party has multiple chief ministerial hopefuls in the race, with Venugopal, a well-known Rahul Gandhi favourite, as the frontrunner. Insiders say the party’s ability to manage competing ambitions will matter in Kerala.
The factional wars in the Congress continued in other states also, with the battle between Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar surfacing routinely through November as the party completed its half-term in the state.
Shivakumar’s supporters have been waiting a turn of power in the state, citing a promise that the chief minister’s post would be rotated after half a term. Congress leaders have publicly rejected apprehensions of tension in Karnataka, but observers say the trouble could be real. 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 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.
The year 2025 ended with voices within the party growing on the weak organisational set-up and calls for strengthening it. Senior leader Digvijaya Singh created a row after he lauded the strength of the RSS-BJP organisation and called for strengthening the Congress at the grassroots.
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.
