Bihar Verdict: With repeated setbacks, is Congress emerging as the INDIA bloc’s biggest liability?

Bihar Election Results: Congress won six of the 61 seats it contested in the Bihar elections, which turned out to be yet another setback for the party that fought was part of the Mahagathbandhan or the INDIA bloc, along with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left parties.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) combine of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), secured a landslide win with leads on 202 seats in the 243-member Assembly, virtually decimating the opposition, including the Congress party. The BJP finished as single largest party with 89 seats, closely followed by the JD (U) with 85 seats

The Mahagathbandhan finished with 35 seats.

No takers for 'Vote Chori'

The numbers are not just a drubbing for the Congress but a setback to Rahul Gandhi, who travelled in the poll-bound state months before the November polls to convince voters that the BJP, assisted by the Election Commission, had been indulging in ‘vote chori’ and stealing votes

Gandhi launched the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in August, perhaps buoyed by the two previous yatras that helped the party consolidate votes in the last few elections, including the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and the Telangana assembly polls 2023. Clearly, Rahul Gandhi's "vote chori" plank failed to convince the voters in Bihar, where it was a dominant force till 1990.

The Once-Dominant Congress

Congress, like other states, was the dominant political force in Bihar for the first three decades after Independence and ruled the state continuously from 1947 to 1967. It returned to power in Bihar in the 1980s only to be dethroned by Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Janata Dal in 1990.

Over time, the grand old party's organisational strength in Bihar eroded, particularly in contrast with strong regional players like the RJD, the JD(U), and now the BJP. The party won 19 seats in Bihar in the 2020 assembly polls, down from the 27 seats it won in 2015.

Under these circumstances, Congress often relied on being part of larger coalitions to remain politically relevant and never contested as a dominant solo force in Bihar in recent times.

Bihar in-charge ‘corporate agent’

The party's campaign in Bihar came under scrutiny from the beginning. Following his August yatra, Rahul Gandhi remained largely absent and returned to the campaign trail only on 29 October. Gandhi's absence had become a significant issue amid a crisis within the party's ranks, with many leaders alleging discrepancies in the distribution of tickets.

A group of disgruntled Congress leaders, including former MLAs, staged a protest for being denied tickets. These leaders demanded the immediate replacement of the party's Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru with a ‘political’ person. They accused Allavaru of being a “corporate agent” and “sleeper cell of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – the ideological fountainhead of the BJP.

‘Total Failure’

Many party leaders labelled Congress's dismal performance as a “total failure of the organisation”.

"This reflects the weakness of our organisation. In any election, a political party relies on its organisational strength. If the organisation is weak and cannot function effectively, the overall outcome suffers," Congress leader and former Governor Nikhil Kumar told news agency ANI.

Congress MP and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, who recently wrote an article titled ‘Indian Politics Are a Family Business’, arguing that Indian politics continue to remain a family enterprise, shared his thoughts as well.

'INDIA Bloc Leadership'

“I am sure that the party (Congress) has a responsibility to study in detail the causes. However, remember that we were not the senior partner in the alliance, and RJD also needs to carefully examine its own performance. But I will say that on a matter like this, it's very important that we look at the totality of our performance,” Tharoor told ANI.

INDIA bloc ‘liability’

Congress’s performance in earlier alliances, including in Uttar Pradesh with the Akhilesh Yadav–led Samajwadi Party, has contributed to its ‘liability’ tag within the INDIA bloc.

Congress frequently contests a significant number of seats in alliance arrangements but wins very few of them. In Uttar Pradesh (2017, 2022), the Congress–SP alliance delivered poor outcomes.

The party's underperformance undermined the INDIA bloc’s strength in Bihar. Not that the RJD did better. It has been reduced to 25 seats, much fewer than the 75 it won in 2020, and emerged as the single largest party.

The Congress debacle in Bihar may also intensify calls for a leadership change within the INDIA bloc, the opposition coalition the party leads at the Centre. The Bihar verdict comes ahead of a series of key elections, starting with those in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Puducherry, and Kerala next year. Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are going to polls in 2027.