BJP Onslaught, Grand Old Party’s Reckoning

metro india news  I hyderabad

At the height of high pitched Uttar Pradesh's political battleground in 2018, Home Minister Amit Shah, unleashed a vision that has since become a rallying cry for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party: "Congress Mukt Bharat." Speaking at a party conclave in Lucknow on July 7, 2018, Shah declared the goal was not merely electoral dominance but the eradication of what he termed the "Congress culture" of corruption, dynastic entitlement, and policy paralysis that had plagued India for decades. This wasn't hyperbole; it was a blueprint.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's iron-fisted leadership and Shah's strategic acumen, the BJP has methodically dismantled the Indian National Congress's once-unassailable edifice, reducing the party that shaped independent India to a shadow of its former self. As of November 2025, Congress clings to power in just three states—Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Telangana—governing a mere 10% of India's population, down from over 20 states in 2014. This precipitous decline isn't accidental; it's the culmination of a decade-long BJP offensive, fueled by relentless campaigning, strategic alliances, and exploitation of Congress's internal rot.

The numbers paint a damning portrait. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Congress plummeted to 44 seats—a historic low, with its vote share cratering to 19.3%, the party's worst since independence. The BJP, riding the Modi wave, secured 282 seats on its own, forming a government without coalition crutches for the first time since 1984. By 2019, Congress clawed back marginally to 52 seats, but the 2024 polls offered a false dawn: 99 seats, its best since 2014, yet still far short of the 272 needed for a majority.

The INDIA alliance, Congress's desperate anti-BJP front, mustered 234 seats, forcing Modi to lean on allies like the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United). But national gains mask state-level carnage. Since 2014, Congress has lost power in 18 states, including bastions like Madhya Pradesh (2018), Rajasthan (2023), and Chhattisgarh (2023), where BJP sweeps delivered 163 of 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh alone. Voter turnout in these routs hovered around 70%, with BJP's hyper-local machinery—booths, micro-donations, and social media blitzes—mobilizing 38% vote shares against Congress's flagging 15-20%.

The BJP's playbook is surgical. Shah's "Congress Mukt" mantra evolved from rhetoric to reality through Operation Sindoor in 2017, a covert defection drive that lured over 25 opposition leaders to BJP folds, many facing corruption probes that mysteriously stalled post-switch. In Uttar Pradesh, the 2022 assembly polls saw BJP clinch 255 of 403 seats, decimating a Samajwadi-Congress tie-up that netted just 111.

Economic discontent? BJP counters with welfare: 80 crore people fed via free grains under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, and 25 crore lifted from multidimensional poverty since 2014, per NITI Aayog data. Communal polarization? The Ram Temple inauguration in Ayodhya in 2024 galvanized Hindu voters, boosting BJP's northern heartland haul by 15% in bypolls. Congress, meanwhile, flails with distractions. Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022-23 drew crowds but translated to zilch in 2023 Rajasthan, where Congress lost 78 seats despite incumbency.

The latest blow landed in Bihar's November 2025 assembly elections, a microcosm of Congress's self-inflicted wounds. The Mahagathbandhan—RJD, Congress, and Left allies—crumbled, securing only 34 seats against NDA's 202 in the 243-member house. Congress, allotted 61 seats, won a pathetic six, with a strike rate of 9.8%—its second-worst since 2010—and a contested vote share dipping to 34.1%, below even CPI(ML)'s 35.8%. Gandhi's "Vote Chori" rallies, alleging electoral fraud via Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, fell flat.

Turnout hit 65%, but NDA's welfare pitch—Nitish Kumar's schemes aiding 1.2 crore women—trumped Congress's cries, per ECI data. Internal whispers turned to roars: Gandhi skipped result day, jetting to the Gulf, leaving ally Tejashwi Yadav to face the media alone. Young MPs like John Brittas vented frustration over Gandhi's disruption tactics in Parliament, which they say derail debates and bury emerging voices. "No one in Congress will tell you this," tweeted ex-spokesperson Sanjay Jha in February 2025, slamming the leadership's denial amid Shashi Tharoor's sidelining.

This isn't bad luck; it's systemic failure. Congress's high command—insulated in Lutyens' Delhi—ignores ground realities. Leaders like KC Venugopal, Mallikarjun Kharge's organizational czar, and Jairam Ramesh, media handler, helm a creaking machine marred by nepotism and ticket-selling scandals. In Bihar, whispers abound that observers peddled nominations, alienating cadres.

A 2025 AICC session exposed the rot: delegates demanded purging a "coterie" of sycophants, with Gujarat's Vijay Sharma accusing state bosses of misleading the center pre-polls. Gandhi's aversion to tough calls—evident in his hands-off Bihar seat-sharing with RJD, where a Shaadi.com alum reportedly bungled talks—exacerbates the mess. Vote share erosion tells the tale: from 19.5% nationally in 2014 to 19.1% in 2024, while BJP's held at 37%. Grassroots? Nonexistent. BJP boasts 18 crore members via its app; Congress limps with outdated rolls.

The three remaining bastions teeter. In Karnataka, Siddaramaiah's government faces anti-incumbency over a ₹16,000 crore graft scandal in the Maharshi Valmiki Corporation, with BJP eyeing a 2028 comeback. Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu battles fiscal deficits exceeding ₹10,000 crore. Telangana's Revanth Reddy, holds by a thread amid farmer unrest. If BJP's onslaught persists—leveraging ED raids (up 300% since 2014) and welfare nets—two could fall by 2028, leaving Congress with one toehold.

Introspection isn't optional; it's survival. Gandhi must ditch "Vote Chori" theatrics for bread-and-butter battles: unemployment at 8.1% (CMIE data), inflation gnawing 6% of household incomes, and agrarian distress with 1.5 lakh farmer suicides since 2014. Ditch the coterie—Venugopal's 2025 Bihar in-charge flop is exhibit A—and empower districts, as Kharge pledged in April's AICC overhaul. Leaders like Mumtaz Patel, a Gujarat firebrand, demand axing failures; heed them. Without remedial surgery, Shah's resolve hardens into reality: a Congress Mukt Bharat, where the grand old party fades into footnotes.

Viral video flags Congress leadership gaps

On Congress party's recent appointment of Aadesh Rawal as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary in-charge for Bihar. Lack of Grassroots Experience: Why Rawal—who has never contested even a local panchayat (village council) or municipal councillor election—was directly appointed to oversee a politically volatile state like Bihar, home to over 120 million people and a hotbed of electoral battles. He argues this bypasses seasoned Congress leaders, including current and former MPs, MLAs, and ministers who have fought and won elections.

Critique of Party Criteria: It is like a "tractor driver" (symbolizing rural, working-class politicians) with a "Mercedes owner" (elite, urban figures), implying both are now deemed equally qualified for leadership.  The Congress party of favoring candidates from corporate backgrounds or prestigious institutions like Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, or Yale, suggesting this "corporate-NGO culture" has eroded merit-based selections.

Dig at Rahul Gandhi: Referencing Rahul Gandhi's "Jai Jagat" slogan and his affinity for poverty alleviation themes, The video mocks how aspiring leaders perform "drama" to appeal to him—such as tearing shirts, poking holes in kurtas, or posing as poor—despite their privileged upbringings.  This performative humility has systematically weakened Congress's youth and student wings (like NSUI and Youth Congress), once the party's strongest organizational arms.