Maha, Haryana assembly polls: Congress slowly losing steam

Even as the early trends of the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls indicate the

has a long way to go to catch up with the

in the race for the top seat in , one cannot stop wondering the downfall the Congress is facing since the Lok Sabha election earlier this year.

According to the election trends, regional parties in both Haryana and Maharashtra have shown their might pushing Congress futher down. INLD in Haryana was seen taking a clear lead over Congress while Shiv Sena was seen trailing behing BJP in Maharashtra but ahead of the Congress.

Congress' presence restricted to a handful of states

Signs of cracks within the Congress were seen way before the Maharashtra assembly elections when NCP broke ties with the party. In Haryana, Bhupiner Singh Hooda's government was accused of shielding Robert Vadra in the land scam. The damage was laready done.

With this the Congress rule is likely to be restricted to a handful of states such as Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and northeast states like Assam.

Not only did the party lose the Lok Sabha elections but lost by a considerable margin to the BJP. Similar results are being predicted in Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections where the Congress is losing by a huge margin.

Where does this leave the Congress now?

A decade long Congress rule in Haryana seems to be ending with the BJP cleary emerging with a majority in the state. While it was always a Cong-INLD fight in the state, BJP, riding on its Lok Sabha success managed to break the Cong success formula.

While BJP cashed in on Modi's success and made use of that in election campaigns, Congress was seen campaigning minus Rahul Gandhi's presence. BJP's total tally of rallies in Maharashtra alone was 325 but Congress failed to cross the 100 mark. Did this dent the party's chances in the assembly elections?

Congress ruled states like Karnataka and Assam will hold their assembly elections in 2018. The party in order to salvage their government must ensure to reach out to the people on a huge scale and make its presence felt.The party needs to introspect on every level and correct what went wrong.

Some voices within the party even feel that Priyanka Gandhi must be brought in as she could save the party from being reduced to dust however there is no official confirmation on that.

OneIndia News