Congress at a Crossroads: Can Public Sentiment Force a Genuine Revival?

C L Rajam

Since Narendra Modi and the BJP-led NDA stormed to power in 2014, the Indian National Congress has been in free fall. From ruling 13 states and influencing coalitions in several others in 2014, the party today clings to full power in only three—Telangana, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh—with even Karnataka looking increasingly vulnerable after the recent municipal polls. Amit Shah’s repeated declaration that India must be made “Congress-mukt” no longer sounds like rhetoric; it feels like an ongoing project with measurable milestones.

Two high-voltage campaigns led by Rahul Gandhi—the 2022-23 Bharat Jodo Yatra and the current “Vote Chori” protests—generated impressive optics and momentary momentum, yet failed to translate into seats or state governments. The message from the ground is brutally clear: marches alone cannot substitute for organisational muscle, ideological clarity, and governance delivery. India, the world’s largest democracy, desperately needs a credible national opposition. The question is no longer whether Congress realises this, but whether it is willing to undertake the painful surgery required.

Metro India recently conducted a rapid all-India survey cutting across caste, class, region, and age. The responses, remarkably consistent, read less like scattered opinions and more like a public roadmap for Congress revival. What emerges is a portrait of a party seen as dynastic, directionless, and dangerously disconnected from the aspirational Hindu majority.

The most frequently repeated demand is ideological reorientation: “Move closer to Hindutva; do not distance yourselves from the 80% Hindu population.” Respondents are blunt—Congress’s reflexive secularism is increasingly interpreted as minority appeasement and Hindu neglect. The call to “stop extra appeasement of minorities” appeared in almost every focus group. This is not fringe sentiment; it is mainstream anxiety in Hindi-heartland towns and even in parts of coastal India.

On leadership, the survey reveals a split but revealing preference. One camp wants a strong, non-dynastic AICC president aged 50-60 with proven organisational skills. The other camp says Rahul Gandhi must finally take undivided charge and lead from the front instead of periodic absences abroad during crises. Either way, the era of remote-control leadership by the Gandhi family while maintaining deniability is over in public perception.

Another interesting suggestion is about utilising the services of Priyanka Gandhi. Most of the people who took part in the survey was the Congress party to utilise the services of Priyanka Gandhi in southern States and Maharashtra. They pointed out that Priyanka evoked the personality of Mrs Indira Gandhi whenever she visited the Southern states and Maharasthra.

In Tamil Nadu, karnataka, AP and Telangana states a majority of people have love and sympathies towards Indira Gandhi. In her electioneering in Telangana in the last Assembly polls, several women told Priyanka that they were seeing Indiramma in her. It will be a master stroke if Priyanka is made of incharge of the Southern states and Maharashtra,

Organisational overhaul figures prominently. People want a north Indian, middle-aged organising secretary who understands the Hindi heartland’s pulse, strong state unit chiefs with real autonomy, and the immediate sidelining of senior leaders whose loose statements provide daily ammunition to the BJP IT cell. There is fatigue with the constant drip of self-goals.

Governance showcase is another recurring theme. Respondents pointed out that Congress still governs three states (for now). If it can demonstrate visibly cleaner, more investor-friendly, and pro-poor administration than BJP-ruled states—particularly in Karnataka and Telangana—it would have living proof that it remains a viable alternative. still, corruption scandals in Karnataka and Telangana and bureaucratic inertia in Himachal undermine that narrative almost weekly.

On social engineering, the demands are precise and politically explosive: 33-50% reservation for women in party and government posts, 40% for Backward Classes, and 50% overall for youth and women combined. These are not progressive talking points; they are hard electoral arithmetic in states where OBC and women voters decide outcomes.

Perhaps the most instructive suggestion is to “stop alliances with regional parties and rebuild Congress from the grassroots.” The INDIA bloc experiment has yielded diminishing returns—Congress ends up ceding space to allies who then cannibalise its cadre and votes. The survey reflects a desire for Congress to fight alone, win modestly at first, and slowly expand rather than piggyback on strong regional satraps who have no long-term interest in Congress revival.

Finally, respondents want the party to train and elevate a new generation of young, honest leaders who cannot be silenced by central agencies—a tacit acknowledgement that fear of ED and CBI has paralysed second-rung leadership.

The tragedy for Congress is that none of these suggestions are new. Every defeated state unit has produced similar post-mortem reports for a decade. What is new is that ordinary voters—not just disgruntled partymen—are now articulating the same diagnosis with near-identical prescriptions.

The party high command faces a stark choice. It can treat these public suggestions as yet another opinion poll to be filed away, continue with symbolic yatras and alliance juggling, and drift toward single-digit Lok Sabha seats by 2029. Or it can recognise that 2025-26 represents the last realistic window for structural reform before the BJP consolidates its dominance into something resembling a one-party system at the national level.

History shows that Congress has reinvented itself after worse debacles—1977, 1996, even 2014. But each previous revival required ruthless internal change: Indira Gandhi’s split in 1969, Narasimha Rao’s economic liberalisation and organisational purge in the 1990s, Sonia Gandhi’s systematic rebuilding of state units post-1999. The common thread was decisive, often brutal, leadership willing to break china.

Today the party lies shattered anyway. The only question is whether someone in the Congress will finally pick up the broom—or whether the party prefers to wait for the BJP to sweep it into the dustbin of history. The Congress should make every efforts to say, at least as the mainOppostion party in the country for the sake of a proper democracy!