The Congress party’s slide in Bihar has been steep; from 19 seats in the 2020 assembly polls to just six in 2025, a threefold reduction in its electoral presence. This has not only weakened its grip on crucial constituencies but is also expected to evolve into a cadre meltdown in nearly 70 per cent of its existing presence, equal to the number of seats it has lost.
Moreover, the electoral setback of Mahagathbandhan has triggered deep dissatisfaction among Congress's senior leaders in the state, many of whom believe that the party will rapidly lose ground in the state now.
The party leadership, led by Congress's Bihar state in-charge, gave tickets to over a dozen people who had joined the Congress within six months leading to the assembly elections. According to party insiders, seven seats were given to Papu Yadav's loyalists, and more than eight seats were given to the former Bihar unit president, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, but the party lost in all these seats.
A political analyst says, "It is normal that when the party loses elections, its cadre is dissatisfied and start speaking about the shortcomings, and if it loses badly, it resents the decisions of the party leadership. The party may now further decline in its presence. There is a leadership shortage in Congress, and they have not been able to figure out who should be given responsibilities, who can help them bring their fractional cadres together, and make its grassroots network grow."
He added, "But it is also true that the ground cadre only becomes better when the party wins or its leaders are strongly ideologically driven. Congress people have become mixed up with a little right, little centre and a little left."
The party has also initiated disciplinary action against 43 of its leaders, including a few former ministers and MLAs, for their alleged involvement in anti-party activities after the ticket distribution. The committee had also asked these leaders to reply within three days, failing which, strict action will be initiated, including expulsion from the party for up to six years. According to party insiders, these were the leaders who had worked for the party and were expecting tickets, but after being refused tickets, they went against the candidates chosen by the party.
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A senior Congress functionary said, "The Congress leadership in Bihar would work on their own without taking the senior leaders into confidence. In most of the seats, young leaders were given tickets, completely ignoring those who had worked for years for the party. And thus, the senior leaders completely stopped working on most of the seats. There were other leaders associated with them, they also turned slow and were unwilling to work. We won only three seats with a respectable margin, the rest of the three were won with razor-thin margins."
The Congress won three seats with more than 12,000 votes and the remaining three seats with less than 2,000 votes, two of which were won with less than 1000 votes.
Another senior Congress leader said, "After every election, the Congress sends a show-cause notice to those who have been involved in challenging the party's decisions or working against the party's candidates or the party itself. But, not much action follows these disciplinary actions. Same show-cause notice was sent for bigger rebellion, like in Rajasthan, Mahesh Joshi and Shanti Dhariwal had opposed the high command's decision of holding a meeting in Rajasthan for choosing a chief minister candidate replacing Ashok Gehlot." |
