NEW DELHI: The Congress is dead, and the tragedy is that this statement cannot be followed as in ‘The King is Dead, Long Live the King’ with a ‘Long Live the Congress’ as clearly the Indian voters do not echo the sentiment.

The Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana have effectively buried the Congress party with the BJP sweeping both states in a plus 74 seat gain in Maharashtra with an impressive tally of 122 seats, and a plus 45 seat gain in Haryana where it has secured 49 seats. BJP president Amit Shah, with two more feathers under his overpacked cap, has announced that the party will be forming the government in both the states.

In a series of dramatic developments after the results were known, the Nationalist Congress Party has switched sides and offered to support the BJP in Maharashtra to help it form the government. This comes as a counter to the Shiv Sena that has improved its position substantially in the state with 59 Assembly seats, and is still claiming the chief minister’s seat. The NCP on the other hand is prepared to work under a BJP chief minister with Devendra Fadnavis likely to be appointed to the post. The BJP has announced that it will consider the NCP offer with Sharad Pawar in close touch with the party.

Except for the BJP and the Shiv Sena all the other political parties in the fray for these two Assembly elections have lost seats. However, it is the Congress party that has been further decimated losing 38 seats in Maharashtra to total just 44 seats, and being routed in Haryana with just 14 seats, 26 less than in the last Assembly.

Both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and scion Rahul Gandhi campaigned in the two states, but their intervention remained low key and very unimpressive. For instance, Rahul Gandhi addressed only four rallies in Maharashtra as compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 27 high voltage rallies across the state. In fact, the inability of the top leadership to give a sense of direction to the party is finding vocal expression on social media, with a ‘Where is Rahul Gandhi’ trending on Facebook and Twitter.

Despite the negative response, the Nehru-Gandhi family still insists on being the face of the Congress party with no effort being made to expand the face to include the more popular, and outspoken state leaders in the party. The result is that PM Modi’s barbs against the Congress party are virtually going unchallenged, with the BJP succeeding in its strategy to wipe out the Congress party in all its strongholds and take its place instead as the only national level party in the country. All others are regional parties, more than willing to make common cause with the BJP---as in the case of the NCP in Maharashtra---at different intervals of their political lives.

There has been no movement inside the Congress since the Lok Sabha elections that reduced the party to a pale shadow. Sonia Gandhi, who has a little more credibility with the voters than her son, is not seen as an active politician, and rumours of her poor health have further taken away from her perceived efficacy. Congress leaders themselves recognise her as at best a lynchpin of sorts, holding up the party that would disintegrate without this support.

Conservative and cautious to a fault, the Congress president is not seen as one who can imbue the party with new vigour, and a new, effective leadership.

The voters have summarily rejected Rahul Gandhi as the heir of the Nehru-Gandhi legacy, and despite his efforts over the past several years he has not been able to enthuse them sufficiently to part with their votes. A lack lustre politician, Rahul Gandhi no longer has the support of his party with even many of the younger politicians ---like Milind Deora and Sachin Pilot-- finding their own way and their own terrain. Rahul Gandhi remains with a non-political clique who have, in the words of a senior Congress leader, “not been able to understand politics, let alone the Congress party.” This has been on show during the Lok Sabha elections, and the Assembly polls, with Rahul Gandhi bereft of strategy or a plan to revive himself and the Congress party.

There is tremendous demoralisation in the party and this will soon be visible with the Sonia Gandhi glue losing its hold. Congress members have already started moving away to join the BJP or other regional parties, and seniors fear a repeat of history when the party started disintegrating after the death of Rajiv Gandhi and his widow Sonia had to be brought in to stop the exodus. There has been no party activity, even as basic as an AICC session, to bring the party together with the demoralisation now seeping into the states rapidly.

As a Congress leader said when asked why the party is so silent, “the party will remain silent it seems.” Senior Congressmen are unable to defend the party, or the Family as they are not being consulted or involved in any revival project. The only option for those fearing the worst is to renew the call to Priyanka Vadra to take over the leadership, and this was again heard after the Maharashtra and Haryana debacle. However, the BJP is countering this with the proverbial Damocles sword that it keeps hanging over her husband Robert Vadra’s head.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave voice to this during his campaign in Haryana where he asked the Election Commission to probe the allotment of land by the state government to Vadra. The EC might have given a clean chit to Vadra, but the issue has become a major topic of discussion against what is being seen by the party itself as a ‘warning’ to the Family so that Priyanka is not allowed to enter politics. During the Lok Sabha elections she did respond to this campaign against her husband saying she will not keep silent, but that bravado has since subsided into silence.