Four reasons why Congress does not learn from its electoral failures – and what it can do about it

All the hopes built up by the Lok Sabha elections in June that the end of the end of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s dominance had perhaps begun have been shattered by the assembly elections in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.

In the assembly election results declared on October 8, the National Conference, a constituent of the Opposition INDIA bloc won in Jammu and Kashmir but the performance of the Congress was dismal. The party lost in Haryana too.

No doubt, the Lok Sabha elections showed that the BJP’s decline was real but it did not warrant the euphoric reaction in the anti-BJP camp. First, the BJP’s vote share declined only by a little over 1% – from 37.7% to 36.56%. But this was amplified into the loss of 63 seats (from 303 to 240) seats compared to the previous elections.

But most importantly, the BJP still managed the hattrick of forming the government for the third time under the same person as prime minister, which is what counts in Indian democracy where the winner takes it all. The BJP’s tally was also still higher than any other party. This should have propelled the Opposition, particularly the Congress, to quickly overcome its weakness and brace up for the assembly...

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