In 2014, 44 seats and 19.3% votes; in 2019, 52 seats and 19.49% votes; and in 2024, 99 seats and 21.26% vote percentage. Compared to 8.3% in 2019 and 9.4% in 2014, Congress had a 30% better strike rate in head-to-head battles against BJP at 29%, compared to 8% and 12.2% in 2019.
Comparing the performance of Congress and the India Block, the BJP was limited to 240 seats with a majority, but its NDA group won 294 seats.
“Today’s election results are the result of the people’s mandate. It is a victory for the people and democracy. We humbly accept the people’s opinion in the 18th Lok Sabha elections.” This time, the people did not give a clear majority to any party (especially the ruling party).
They also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The BJP was seeking votes for one person and one face, but now it is clear that the people’s opinion has turned against Narendra Modi. Morally and politically, this is a big defeat for him. They suffered a huge moral loss.”
The Congress’s transformation was built on three pillars.
The first was the alliance
Towards the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, the formation of the opposition India group began with many stakeholders publicly disclosing the delays by Congress in seat-sharing negotiations. But eventually, the Congress-led group of 30 parties largely succeeded. The group fielded candidates for 543 seats, including 75 seats in West Bengal, Kerala, and Punjab, which were most important for the allies. The alliance managed to field a candidate against the BJP in nearly 350 seats.
Congress was ready to leave a lot behind. This year, it fielded only 328 candidates, the lowest number so far. Interestingly, the team was ready to go even lower.
At an internal meeting of Congress leaders at the party headquarters on January 6, Kharge indicated that Congress would contest fewer seats: “We should focus on 255 seats.”
“We respected the stakeholders of India. We supported their wishes and fought together,” he said in a press conference.
But Congress was also careful in selecting its candidates.
Where it felt that seat-sharing would harm the alliance, it avoided an alliance, like in Punjab, but settled for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in that state and Delhi. A senior Congress leader in Punjab said, “If the ruling party and the main opposition had joined hands, our votes would have gone to the BJP and Akali Dal.” Of the 13 seats in Punjab, Congress won seven and AAP won three seats.
Similarly, an agreement with the Trinamool Congress was avoided in West Bengal.
It did not partner with the Left in Kerala. Although it won only one seat in West Bengal, its UDF alliance won 18 seats in Kerala (one less than last time), showing that this approach worked for the party.
“We need to revive our organization. Now we hope to reclaim the role of the main opposition,” said a Congress leader. After winning less than 10% of the Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019, Congress was not eligible to appoint its House leader as the Leader of the Opposition. That will now change.
The second was focus
Congress focused heavily on caste census, unemployment, and inflation, emphasizing 25 guarantees in its manifesto and aggressively countering BJP’s claims that Congress would redistribute wealth or resources to Muslims if it came to power.
The A4 size card with 25 solid guarantees was perhaps the most important document for Congress in the Lok Sabha 2024 campaign. It included five guarantees each for women, youth, farmers, workers, and social justice.
“We gave a new vision to India. We gave a pro-poor vision for India. The country has made it clear that we do not want Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to run the affairs of this country,” Gandhi said.
“We realized that our focus should be on the common man. The rural and urban poor and middle class. And that’s how we crafted our manifesto,” a Congress leader said, requesting anonymity.
The issue of caste-based reservation was a major issue. Congress and other allies alleged that the BJP wanted to win more than 400 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats to amend the Constitution and end caste-based reservation for SC and ST. Although unrealistic, the BJP struggled to counter this. And Gandhi stood for the caste census, promising proportional benefits, and said that it would increase the 50% limit for SC, ST, and OBC reservations.
During his Bharat Jodo Yatra, wearing a white polo T-shirt and pants, Rahul Gandhi kept a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution and displayed it in almost every meeting.
“For the first time, the Constitution has become a main issue in the Lok Sabha elections. And the poorest areas were particularly affected,” he said.
“Why do they need 400 seats?” Many Congress candidates and India group leaders asked questions during the campaign. They also answered: Change the Constitution drafted by B.R. Ambedkar and end reservations.
The third was the party organization
Between the 2019 and 2024 elections, Rahul Gandhi traveled over 10,000 km in his two journeys, mostly on foot, reaching out to people and trying to revive the Congress organization at the grassroots level. His sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra chose to campaign across India and particularly in Uttar Pradesh instead of contesting in Amethi.
Under Kharge’s leadership, the Congress organization emerged united. More importantly, it was responsive and flexible enough to counter the BJP, which often used social media to its advantage, an area where the party lagged behind in 2014 and 2019.
For instance, on May 8, sitting in front of a picture of Mahatma Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi recorded a short video to dismiss Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that Adani and Ambani sent “tempo-load” money to Congress. “You talked about tempo. Are you speaking from your personal experience?” Gandhi asked Modi.
Congress leaders close to Gandhi said the party sharply and swiftly countered “Modi’s lies.”
So, when the BJP alleged that Congress wanted to redistribute wealth, the party machinery completely refuted it, arguing that its entire manifesto did not mention redistribution even once.
Certainly, with 102 seats in the Lok Sabha, Congress is still far behind the BJP, but experts say the improvement is quite significant.
“Given the adverse circumstances faced before the election, this was a major turnaround for Congress. It will form a larger and better pressure group inside and outside Parliament, but it is also Congress’s responsibility to unite the alliance for upcoming elections,” they said.
