While the next year will have only assembly elections in Bihar, it needs to be seen whether the fairytale script of the Congress led UPA-II would be back on track.
Congress was on cloud nine with its rousing performance in the Lok Sabha elections in the middle of 2009, proving its critics wrong; but as the year drew to a close, the Telangana issue and rising prices had a humbling effect on the party.
It was also a year when Rahul Gandhi came into his own as a leader, as he successfully led the battle in the country's key state Uttar Pradesh, and was part of the "trinity" of leaders along with his mother Sonia and prime minister Manmohan Singh.
The gradual ascendance of Congress reached its peak in the May Lok Sabha polls, with Sonia Gandhi shaking off the opposition challenge to lead the party-led coalition to power for the second time in succession.
Much to the surprise of many a partyman, Congress crossed the 200-mark in the 543-member house after a gap of almost 18 years, which saw virtual marginalisation of most of the regional parties and the Left.
The prime ministership of Manmohan Singh received people's approval with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), turning the polls into a virtual duel between a "weak" Singh and a "strong" LK Advani – only to end as an electoral flop.
BJP's tally in the Lok Sabha was reduced from 138 to 116, and the Third Front floated by Prakash Karat and like-minded leaders turned into a non-starter.
A highlight of the Lok Sabha elections was that generally those parties and leaders among UPA and allies who sided with Congress, survived or thrived, while those who tried to sideline it, almost fell by the wayside.
For instance, Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was down from 27 to just four, and Ram Vilas Paswan met his waterloo with his Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) drawing a blank after they parted ways with Congress.
Almost similar was the fate of Samajwadi Party, which had helped the UPA-I survive after the withdrawal of the Left support to the government. Its tally dipped from 39 to 22.
As against this, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) managed its place in the UPA-II by fighting the elections together with Congress.
Nothing was going wrong for the Congress and Gandhi till October, as the victories in the assembly polls of Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh were the icing on the cake.
At the fag end of the year, it however failed to perform magic in Jharkhand, where a UPA constituent Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Shibu Soren appears set to become the chief minister by aligning with the BJP.
A big loss for the party was the death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajashekhar Reddy in a chopper crash months after a spectacular return to power, and making the state a powerhouse for the Congress with 33 Lok Sabha seats.
However, the rising prices of essential commodities which brought worries to the party by the end of the year were compounded by the Centre's decision on creation of separate Telangana as it stirred a hornet's nest.
Two UPA allies DMK and NCP attacked the Congress and the government for the "haphazard" manner in which the decision was taken.
Demands for creation of new states stumped the Centre and caught the Congress leadership unawares, with leaders like Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati demanding division of Uttar Pradesh, thereby deliberately adding fuel to the Telangana fire.
Creation of a separate Harit Pradesh, Poorvanchal and Bundelkhand are the demands from Uttar Pradesh leaders, while separate Vidarbha is an old demand of a section of people from Maharashtra. An agitation is on for a separate Gorkhaland in West Bengal.
While the Centre has now put the Telangana issue on the backburner with yet another announcement, it is still unclear whether it was now out of the woods as Telangana region has not taken kindly to the government's new stance.
Even as 2009 was about to ring out, Senior leader ND Tiwari created an embarrassment for the party as he quit governorship of Andhra Pradesh in the wake of an alleged sex scandal.
The Congress will be entering 125th year (on December 28) as the new year rings in, and Sonia has already created a record by becoming the longest serving president of the party completing almost a dozen years in the top post.
While the next year will have only assembly elections in Bihar, it needs to be seen whether the fairytale script of the Congress led UPA-II, which appeared to be floundering on the Telangana issue, would be back on track.
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