2024 was mostly about lost chances for Congress

New Delhi: For Congress, 2024 was mostly about lost chances at the hustings.

The principal opposition party though appeared content securing 99 of the 543 seats in the 2024 national elections as against its all-time low of 44 in 2014 and then 52 in 2019.

In assembly polls too, the Congress performed poorly in Haryana and Maharashtra and managed to share the victory podium in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir only due to formidable performance of its respective regional ally.

At the fag end of 2024, the Congress suffered a massive psychological blow when it lost its pillar -- former prime minister Manmohan Singh -- to age-related complications on December 26, a day when the top brass had assembled at Karnataka's Belagavi to discuss the future course of revival and mark the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's presidency of the party.

Singh, who led the UPA government from 2004 to 2014 and earlier ushered India on the path to economic reforms, died at the age of 92 at AIIMS in Delhi.

The year also saw Priyanka Gandhi Vadra finally making her electoral debut and entering Parliament following her massive win in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll. She became the third member of the Gandhi family in Parliament. Mother Sonia Gandhi is now a member of Rajya Sabha and brother Rahul Gandhi represents Rae Bareli in Lok Sabha.

The Congress did seem in control of the poll narratives for most part of the 2024 Lok Sabha election cycle as its leadership projected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "400 paar" call as a saffron ploy to change the Constitution and abolish SC, ST and OBC quotas.

Though many believed the Congress, with its aggressive approach on the issue, pushed the BJP on the back foot, this did not translate into votes as expected.

Also, Rahul Gandhi undertaking the over 62-day Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra covering a distance of 6,200 km from January 14 to March 16, did not yield desired results.

Starting the Yatra from trouble-torn Manipur did not create much impact in the Northeast too.

The Congress also brought out "Paanch Nyay" tagline of "Yuva", "Bhagidari", "Naari", "Kisaan" and "Shramik" Nyay, aimed at ensuring justice for the poor, labourers, farmers, women, youth, backward classes, Dalits, tribals, and minorities, which did not click well with the electorate.

The party was further plagued by utterances made by its leaders including Rahul Gandhi on reservation and Sam Pitroda on diversity of India that worked to its disadvantage during the Lok Sabha poll campaign.

If in 2019, it was Pitroda's "Hua to hua" remark on 1984 anti-Sikh riots, this time his inheritance tax and redistributing assets remarks, besides his 'racist' comments while talking of India's diversity, proved damaging to the party.

The ruling BJP's failure to win a simple majority on its own for which it had to rely on NDA allies for power was billed by the Congress as a triumph for the opposition camp with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi repeatedly describing the 2024 verdict as a moral victory for the broad non-BJP bloc.

In BJP's own assessment, Congress's message on the Constitution had gone home in key battleground states including Uttar Pradesh where INDIA partners SP and Congress came out on top and the saffron brotherhood suffered a drubbing.

Still the BJP managed its historic hattrick -- a first for an incumbent government in over 60 years.

The Congress, however, quickly squandered whatever gains it had made in perception battles around parliamentary elections, as it failed to dislodge BJP despite a two-term incumbency in Haryana.

The BJP retained power in Haryana, defying all poll predictions and prompting the Congress to blame EVMs and voter lists and go back to the Election Commission with complaints that the EVM fraud was a reality. The EC rejected the insinuations as in the past.

After Haryana, the Congress, NCP-SP and Shiv Sena-UBT faced a rout in Maharashtra where the grand old party posted its worst ever score.

Out of eight states and Union territories including Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim that went to polls in 2024, the Congress individually did not win any.

The BJP and allies bagged six -- Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Maharashtra and Haryana.

In both Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, non-Congress parties powered the poll victories with the Congress lagging as a distant junior partner to dominant regional allies -- JMM in Jharkhand and National Conference in J&K.

This led Modi and the BJP to dub the grand old party as a "parjeevi" (parasitic) organisation that was feeding off allies while failing to pull its own weight as evident in Haryana.

Even in 59 state assembly bypolls, the Congress performance remained below par though it bagged two parliamentary byelections held in 2024.

On the front of narratives, Congress espoused several issues at the same time, signalling confusion in what its core political message was.

It started in Lok Sabha polls by attacking the BJP for seeking 400 seats in LS polls to alter the Constitution, went on to push the caste census to count India's dominant OBCs, came down to attacking EVMs and electoral rolls in states where it lost (Haryana and Maharashtra), relaunched its offensive against billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani and wrapped up the year with a scathing offensive against the BJP for allegedly insulting BR Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution.

This also led to an FIR against Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for alleged assault on two BJP lawmakers who were injured in an unprecedented scuffle outside the new Parliament building where the Opposition and ruling side MPs were engaged in competitive protests on Ambedkar during the winter session.

Earlier in the year, the Congress and several INDIA allies skipped the January consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya -- a move that did not seem to impact them negatively in the national polls where the BJP lost Faizabad (the LS seat housing Ayodhya) to opposition Samajwadi Party.

A controversy erupted over the cremation of Manmohan Singh after the government announced he will be given a state funeral at Nigambodh Ghat, a ground open to all.

The Congress asked why Singh was not accorded a state funeral at Smriti Sthal, which has been earmarked for the last rites and memorials of departed national leaders. The BJP, in turn, accused the Congress of doing politics during a moment of grief.