- By Akansha Pandey
- Fri, 14 Nov 2025 03:18 PM (IST)
- Source:Jagran News Network
The results of the Bihar Assembly election have once again proven that internal strife, a weak organisation and inconsistent leadership are continuously pushing the Congress party into a downward spiral.
Despite extensive campaigning by Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and Mallikarjun Kharge, their hard work failed to translate into a concrete political message that reached the voters. As a result, the Congress once again failed to live up to the trust of the people of Bihar, and its long streak of defeats has deepened.
Here are the five primary reasons for this failure.
1. In-charge Allavaru and the Rift in the Grand Alliance
- A key issue was the growing dissatisfaction within the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) regarding the working style of Bihar Congress President and in-charge, Krishna Allavaru.
- His alleged failures in ticket distribution, seat selection and understanding local dynamics created significant tension in the RJD-Congress relationship.
- The RJD repeatedly indicated that Congress claims more seats than its share, despite having neither an organisation nor an effective network on the ground.
- Consequently, the Congress increasingly emerged as a weak link. The perception within the RJD grew stronger that the Congress was neither able to transfer votes nor provide any additional benefit, instead damaging the alliance's unity with ticket wrangling and disarray.
2. Leadership's Disconnect from Ground Realities
- The party's top leadership failed to connect with the specific political realities of Bihar.
- Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi held dozens of rallies, but these focused on a larger, national narrative rather than the local issues that dominate Bihar politics.
- Bihar's politics rests on its caste structure, regional discontent and the influence of local leadership—realities the Congress leadership once again failed to grasp.
- A large section of Congress leaders admits that the top leadership is unaware of ground-level dynamics and repeats the same failed strategy, which has become the party's biggest weakness.
3. A Record of Defeat and Declining Credibility
- The Congress's defeat in Bihar is not new, but this loss has emerged as a new record, marked by a reduction in seats, a fall in vote percentage, and a crisis of trust within the alliance.
- Political analysts believe the Congress organisation has been inactive for years, lacking a strong team from the panchayat to the district level capable of working effectively at the booth level.
- The state executive committee has reportedly not been formed for a decade.
- The party's core problem is that it has neither prepared new faces nor does the public have any remaining trust in its old leaders. Constant experimentation and inconsistency have made the party unreliable.
4. Congress Becoming a Burden for the Grand Alliance
- For the RJD, the Congress now appears to be less of an ally and more of a burden.
- In seat-sharing, the Congress's demands are consistently greater than its actual capacity, and its win rate has declined (citing 2015, 2020, and 2025 as examples).
- The transfer of the vote bank appeared to be one-sided: RJD's votes went to the Congress, but Congress's votes could not be transferred to the RJD or other allies.
- Other parties in the Grand Alliance feel the Congress generates more "buzz" at the time of ticket allocation than it does in winning elections, and later lacks seriousness during the campaign.
5. A Failure to Grasp the Challenge of Bihar
- Bihar's electoral politics, with its complex social equations, is among the most difficult to navigate. The Congress has consistently failed to understand this complexity.
- Compared to cadre-based parties like the RJD, BJP, and JD(U), the Congress's structure is extremely weak.
- The leadership is also not local but is "decided from outside," which fails to generate enthusiasm among local workers.
It is clear that to revive itself in Bihar, rallies by top leaders are not enough. The Congress will have to rebuild its organisation from scratch, bring local leadership to the forefront, and redefine its role within the Grand Alliance. For now, the people of Bihar have rejected it once again, and the party stands at a crossroads where, if changes are not made, this record of defeat could become even longer.