As it becomes clear that the Bharatiya Janata party has won an outright majority on its own(the first for a party in thirty years) the national Democratic Alliance will have close to a two-thirds majority the 128-year old Indian National Congress may not even cross the 50-seat mark. This has led people to dismiss it as a 'regional' party. In fact, the Trinamool Congress and AIADMK together will have more seats than the Congress.
Where does the Congress go from hereIJ There is no doubt that anti-incumbency played a role in the decimation of the Congress party, but the attitude of the 'ruling' Gandhi family did not help either. The arrogance of senior Congress leaders such as Mani Shankar Aiyar and Digvijay Singh who badmouthed Narendra Modi without admonition by either Rahul or Sonia Gandhi made matters worse.
By getting less than 10 per cent of the seats available in the lok Sabha, there will be no 'formal' leader of the Opposition; and if the Congress has to rebuild it needs a leader. It needs several leaders, preferably from every major state. There is only one Congress leader today who has burnished his image today and that is Amrinder Singh.
The Congress has not let any regional leaders stand up against the family, but now it might become a matter or survival. The BJP has grown on the shoulders of regional satraps, the Congress might need some assertive leaders like that now. And if the Congress is to become 150 years old, it might need to ditch its first family.