Can Congress Rebuild From the Rubble?

Rahul Gandhi’s decision to go solo in West Bengal could mark either a bold reset or another misfire.

After decades of decay, India’s once-dominant Congress party is hoping to reassert itself. In 1984, it won 404 of the 514 seats in Parliament. By 2019, it had slumped to 52 - so feeble a showing that it could not even claim the formal position of Leader of the Opposition. In the 2024 general election, Congress marginally improved its tally to around 90, but this modest rebound owed more to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) hubris than to any radical policy pivot or grassroots resurgence by Congress.

This week, the party’s top brass assembled in Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat (a state it has not won in three decades) to chart its path ahead. Whether this signals a genuine course correction or simply another exercise in introspection is uncertain. What is clear is that Congress is attempting something different in West Bengal. There, for the first time in recent memory, it has announced it will fight alone, refusing to cede ground to stronger regional parties as it has done in past elections.

That, in itself, is a break from tradition. Historically, Congress has clung to regional alliances as a crutch, often conceding a majority of seats to local players in return for marginal relevance. This has led to consistent underperformance, shrinking networks and a demoralised cadre. The decision to go solo in Bengal, then, might seem like folly. But some within the party see it as an overdue opportunity to rebuild a decimated organisation from the ground up.

It will not be easy. The rot within Congress is deep and well-documented. Over the years, promising young leaders like Sachin Pilot, JyotiradityaScindia, Milind Deora and JitinPrasada have been overlooked, slighted or driven out to be replaced by ageing loyalists with little grassroots connect. The exodus of such leaders, many of whom are with the BJP, has bled the party of energy and strategic talent.

Internal democracy has also been stifled. After the 2019 debacle, Rahul Gandhi resigned as party president, leaving Sonia Gandhi to serve as interim chief for two listless years. When 23 senior leaders wrote an open letter demanding an elected, full-time president, they were branded traitors or closet BJP sympathisers. Most chose to stay and swallow the insult. A few, like Ghulam Nabi Azad, left.

This culture of sycophancy has extended to the public sphere, where Rahul Gandhi’s antics have become a source of embarrassment for many within his own party. His now-infamous decision to tear up a cabinet ordinance in 2013, thus publicly rebuking his own government, was a turning point. Intended to project idealism, it instead cast then PM Dr. Manmohan Singh as impotent and Rahul as erratic. His continuing jibes at Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, mocking the latter as “maafiveer” (the apologetic hero), irked not just the BJP but many Congress sympathisers in Maharashtra and beyond.

His sporadic foreign sojourns during critical parliamentary sessions, informal behaviour in the Lok Sabha and visible camaraderie with family members during solemn proceedings have further dented his image. INDIA bloc allies, too, have quietly expressed concern that Rahul’s presence at the helm is more a gift to the BJP than a challenge.

Yet, despite these missteps - or perhaps because of them - the decision to go it alone in West Bengal may offer a rare chance to recalibrate. Without alliance partners demanding seat shares, more Congress candidates can contest. This may energise local units, attract new talent, and slowly rebuild the party’s dormant machinery at the ward, panchayat and municipal levels. The goal may not be immediate victory but rather the resurrection of a credible party infrastructure.

The deeper question is whether Congress is willing to let merit rise over dynasty. A decentralised structure, in which state leaders are empowered to take decisions and build local equations, may hold more promise than continued deference to the Gandhi family. For now, there is no sign of such a shift. Rahul Gandhi remains the face of the party despite the baggage he brings.

Congress’s current dilemma is existential. If the West Bengal experiment is to succeed, it must be accompanied by genuine internal reform: a reassertion of party democracy, an end to dynastic entitlement and a culture that values competence over loyalty. The road to revival is long and uncertain. But doing the same thing, again and again, while expecting a different outcome, has already proved ruinous.