After A Year Of Multiple Setbacks, Congress Hopes For Revival In 2026

New Delhi : The Congress has endured another dismal year in 2025, with one of its worst performances in the Bihar and Delhi assembly polls and battling internal factionalism in Karnataka, one of the three states the party rules on its own. The promising results of the Kerala local body polls have provided a ray of hope for the grand old party, which is seeking a revival in 2026.

Senior Congress leaders, including the organisation’s general secretary KC Venugopal, described the Kerala civic poll results as a sign of things to come in this year’s state elections, where the Congress-led United Democratic Front will face the incumbent Left Democratic Front for power.

While the Congress is acutely aware of the BJP’s formidable opponent in Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, it is equally confident in Assam to reverse its electoral fortunes.

Apart from the elections, the main opposition party continued to struggle on the organizational front; The elders openly demanded that the organization be strengthened from below. The demands emerged towards the end of 2025, and a large part of the party became convinced that the front units needed to mobilize for the revival of the main organization.

Party veteran Digvijaya Singh led the demand for organizational revamp, hailing the ruling BJP’s mothership RSS model as a disciplined cadre force. Congress contrarian Shashi Tharoor supported Digvijaya Singh.

Going forward, the Congress will take solace in its recent success in local elections in Kerala, which has given a glimmer of hope to the party that has been out of power for nearly a decade.

Given that the party has several chief ministerial candidates in the race and Rahul Gandhi’s well-known favorite Venugopal is ahead, the road to power in Kerala looks set to be a tough one. Insiders say the party’s ability to manage competing goals will be important in Kerala.

Factional wars in Congress continued in other states; The conflict between Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar routinely surfaced till November as the party was completing its semester in the state.

Shivakumar’s supporters were expecting a change of power in the state, citing his promise that the chief minister’s post would be changed after half a term. Congress leaders have publicly dismissed concerns of tensions in Karnataka, but observers say the problem could be real.

The party has moved to a permanent home in central Delhi, Indira Bhavan, in 2025 as it negotiates difficult terrain on multiple fronts. The official opening of the luxury headquarters took place on January 15, 2025, ending Congress’ 50-year stay at the iconic 24, Akbar Road bungalow.

The shift to a new residence was followed by major electoral turmoil for the Congress in Delhi as the Congress failed to win even a single seat in the assembly for the second consecutive time. BJP overtook AAP in the polls and came back to power in the city after 27 years.

Later in the year, the party suffered another loss, this time in Bihar.

Congress posted its second-worst performance in election history; It managed to win only six of the more than 50 seats it contested in the state, losing deposits in most seats as its “vote chorus” field failed to make any impact on the ground.

The party managed to finish ahead of Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), which won five seats each.

The situation was mixed for the Congress in the by-polls held in various seats during the year. However, its loss in the Tarn Taran assembly bypoll in Punjab to the ruling AAP has raised questions about the party’s chances of coming back to power in the state in 2027.

2025 ended with increasing voices regarding the weak organizational structure within the party and calls to strengthen this structure. Senior leader Digvijaya Singh created controversy after praising the strength of the RSS-BJP organization and calling for grassroots strengthening of the Congress.

While the Congress has been trying to set the political narrative for most of the year with its ongoing attacks on the BJP for its “Constitution amendment” talk, its aggressive approach of “kori vote” accusation against the ruling dispensation and the Election Commission has not translated into votes as expected in Bihar.

Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, a consistent anti-Election Commission and anti-SIR narrative, and his appeals to ‘Gen Z’ to ‘restore democracy’ had no takers in the politically sensitive state.

While the 2025 election results have created a dampening effect for the party cadres, the victory in the local body elections in Kerala gives the party a glimmer of hope in the southern state.

In 2026, the CPI-M’s formidable rival in Kerala will face an emboldened BJP in a direct challenge in Assam and Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, which has ruled West Bengal for the last 15 years. In Tamil Nadu, the Congress is heading to the polls with its partner DMK facing anti-incumbency.