It has been debacles galore since 2004 for the Congress, which has lost electoral battles in as many as 13 states, including in some where it was ruling.
NEW DELHI: It has been debacles galore since 2004 for the Congress, which has lost electoral battles in as many as 13 states, including in some where it was ruling.
After shocking the BJP which was in the "feel good" mode to wrest power at the Centre, it has been a rough ride for the Congress.
Incidentally, Karnataka started the trend for the grand old party in May 2004 itself as it failed to get majority on its own and had to take the coalition route with H D Deve Gowda's JDS to retain power.
This was inspite of the fact that the then Chief Minister S M Krishna was being projected as the best in the country who had turned Bangalore into Silicon Valley of the country.
While it won the Centre and trounced Chandrababu Naidu from power in Andhra Pradesh, its challenge to Naveen Patnaik- led BJD in Orissa also collapsed during 2004.
The Congress retained Maharashtra in the October elections that year with the Congress and NCP alliance becoming successful in checkmating Shiv Sena-BJP combine.
In 2005, it experienced sweet fruits of power in Haryana but it was a case of sour grapes in Jharkhand and Bihar.
In 2006, the Left drove the Congress-led UDF away from power in Kerala and also made mincemeat of the Congress challenge in West Bengal. The only consolation for the Congress was its retaining power in Assam and Puducherry.
The year 2007 was virtually the waterloo of Congress as it lost power in Punjab and Uttarakhand, had a poor show in Uttar Pradesh and Narendra Modi-led BJP shook off its challenge easily in Gujarat.
The only victories in 2007 were in tiny Goa and Manipur.
The current year too has been a flop show for the Congress having lost elections in Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and now Karnataka.
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