Rahul Gandhi’s Rise. Congress’s Decline. Congress won ZERO out of 28 MLC seats. Earlier this month, it drew a blank in five Assembly bypolls, suffered defeats in university elections, including DUSU, and took a major hit in Rajasthan’s civic polls. Meanwhile, the bigger picture remains unchanged: 2008: Congress 1,182 | BJP 889 2013: Congress 1,101 | BJP 891 2017: Congress 807 | BJP 1,365 2024: Congress 654 | BJP 1,588 2026: Congress 663 | BJP 1,818 As Rahul Gandhi rose through the party ranks, the BJP’s Assembly tally more than doubled, while Congress’s fell by over 500 seats. Instead of building a winning political organisation, Congress has spent much of its energy protesting over “Vote Chori” and targeting constitutional institutions. The results speak for themselves. You cannot build an electoral alternative by turning every defeat into a protest and every election into a conspiracy.