A string of electoral defeats in states and the threat of mid-term polls to Lok Sabha, which ironically looks receded because of its reverses, left the Congress dispirited in 2007.
NEW DELHI: A string of electoral defeats in states and the threat of mid-term polls to Lok Sabha, which ironically looks receded because of its reverses, left the Congress dispirited in 2007.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who plainly told her party that neither she nor her son Rahul had a magic wand may look to the year that is coming for the wheels of fortune to change in their favour.
Assembly elections are scheduled in nine states, including BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
The party would hope that the anti-incumbency factor which worked against it in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, may do a favour to it in the saffron-ruled states where already the BJP had suffered defeats in by-elections.
Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, of course, were different cups of tea for the party had not looked up for less than two decades.
The poll debacle in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh at the fag end of the year brought the party's morale down while the sole consolation during the year for it was the victory in Goa and Manipur.
Facing a saffron surge, Congress has been introspecting on the way ahead and how to revive and rejuvenate the organisation amidst suggestion of emulating the British Labour Party, which was transformed by Tony Blair.
As the New Year is about to dawn, the question is whether Gandhi can become Blair, who ensured a new vibrant Labour Party, which defeated the Conservatives and has retained hold over power for more than a decade.
Congress has to get its act together in the New Year as the BJP-led NDA has sought to put its best foot forward by projecting L K Advani as its Prime Ministerial candidate.
There are also fears that the Gujarat win could catapult Modi, the 'master campaigner' and 'demagogue', to the centrestage, much to the worry of Congress and its allies.
The elections scheduled include those in three BJP-ruled states as also in Karnataka, where the Lotus bloomed fleetingly for the first time in the South in 2007.
A highlight of the year gone by was Gandhi bringing in her son and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi as a General Secretary of the AICC and is being projected as the future leader of the party and potential Prime Minister.
Rahul cut his political teeth in the political badlands of Uttar Pradesh without much success as the polity in the most populous state was seen divided between two regional parties -- BSP and Samajwadi party -- making the Congress and BJP, the national parties, mere 'also rans'. Neither did his charm work in Gujarat.
Mindful of the challenges, Gandhi exhorted party men during the AICC meeting held in November in Delhi that they have to go the extra mile to woo the people as neither she nor her son Rahul has a magic wand.
Earlier in the year, there was a new found bonhomie between Sonia Gandhi and Mayawati, who became the good samaritan to extend much needed help to the ruling UPA in the Presidential election.
This ensured that the then Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil reaching the Rashtrapati Bhavan smoothly, making mincemeat of the challenge posed by the then Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
But as the year came to a close, a sort of warmth appeared to be developing between the Congress and SP as Mayawati became increasingly critical of the Government at the Centre.
The issue of revival of the Congress in the Hindi heartland continued to be a big question mark as BSP's victory in Uttar Pradesh was seen as a defining moment in Indian politics while there appeared no light at the end of the tunnel for the party in Bihar.
A good news for Congress was the Marxists losing their sheen in West Bengal following the forcible recapture of Nandigram villages which made Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi as also several Left sympathisers see red.
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